1868.] OF THE GREENLAND SEAS. 541 



could have reached the west coast by any other means ; for, even 

 allowing the greatest credible speed, it comes scarcely within the 

 limits of possibility that it could have doubled Cape Farewell and 

 reached 70° N. latitude within the interval mentioned. The rate at 

 which a Whale travels from place to place whilst feeding, or under 

 other ordinary circumstances, may be stated as being about four 

 miles an hour. Like most of the Cetacea, it generally travels in a 

 course contrary to that of the wind. Its food consists, for the most 

 part, of Entomostraca and Pteropoda, but chiefly of the former, and 

 especially of Cetochilus arcticus, Baird, and Cetochilus septrionalis, 

 H. Goodsir, Arpacticus kronii, KriJy., &c., which are chiefly found 

 in those portions of the sea of the olive-green colour described by 

 Scoresby. This appearance has been shown* to be produced by 

 vast quantities of Diatomacece, chiefly Melosia arctica, on which the 

 "Whales' food" subsists. It is not, I am of opinion, compatible 

 with facts to suppose that the "Right Whale's food is composed in 

 any part of fishes proper, except, perhaps, a minute individual which 

 may now and then accidentally find its way into its stomach with 

 the mass of maidre (as the Whale's food is called). Many of the 

 old whalers contend otherwise, and will adduce measurements of the 

 diameter of the gullet in proof that much larger animals than Aca- 

 lephse, Pteropoda, or Entomostraca could be received in the stomach. 

 I have never measured the orifice of any oesophagus which exceeded 

 21 inches in diameter, though as these observations were generally 

 made on young Whales, it is not improbable that this size may be 

 exceeded in some individuals. Most of the slimy-looking substances 

 found floating in the Arctic seas are generally masses of Diatomacese 

 combined with Protozoa, &c. ; but in some cases it is the mucous 

 lining of the bronchial passages which has been discharged when the 

 animal was " blowing." This " blowing," so familiar a feature of 

 the Cetacea, but especially of the Mysticete, is quite analogous to 

 the breathing of the higher mammals, and the "blow-holes" are 

 the perfect homologues of the nostrils. It is most erroneously stated 

 that the Whale ejects water from the " blow-holes." I have been 

 many times only a few feet from the Whale when " blowing," and, 

 though purposely observing it, could never see that it ejected from 

 its nostrils anything but the ordinary breath — a fact which might 

 almost have been deduced from analogy. In the cold Arctic air 

 this breath is generally condensed, and falls upon those close at baud 

 in the form of a dense spray, which may have led seamen to sup- 

 pose that this vapour was originally ejected in the form of water. 

 Occasionally when the Whale blows just as it is rising out of or 

 sinking in the sea, a little of the superincumbent water may be ejected 

 upward by the column of breath. When the Whale is wounded in 

 the lungs, or in any of the blood-vessels immediately supplying 

 them, blood, as might be expected, is ejected in the death-throes 



* On the Nature of the Discoloration of the Arctic Seas (Seemann's Journal 

 of Botany, February 18C8 ; Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edint)urgh, 

 vol. ix. ; Quart. Jouru. Mic. Science, October 1868; Das Ausland, February 27th, 

 1808). 



