680 THE SPOUTING AND MOVEMENTS OF WHALES. 



motion, the column inclines backward and takes on the appearance of 

 a glass tear. 



Ancient authors often hgured the spouting of different species of 

 whales, but these figures are as naive as false. One sees that these 

 venerable cetologists believed that the whales threw up water through 

 the blowhole, because their figures reproduced conscientiously the 

 appearance of jets of water and fountains gushing. Baer (1864) was 

 the first to give a figure obviously exact of the spout of a finback 

 and of its transformations. He has, nevertheless, drawn it too cylin- 

 drical. In reality its form is distinctly conical. Henking (1901, figs. 

 1 and 2) has perfectly given the appearance of the spout of a Balse- 

 noptera physalus L. (common finback), and the inclination which he 

 has given it is certainly due to the rapid progression of the animal. 



The highest spout is that of Balxnoptera muscidus L. (the sulphur- 

 bottom), in spite of what Rawitz (1900) says, who only attributes to it 

 1 meter. All the eyewitnesses agree on this subject, and 1 estimate 

 further on the height of the spout of this animal at favorable times at 

 15 meters (49 feet). 



The largest spout is that of Balsena mystlcetus L. (l>owhead). The 

 right whales, finbacks, and humpbacks throw up vertical spouts in 

 calm weather, the sperm whale spouts inclined forward at 1-35'-' (Beale, 

 1839), and the large porpoises a very short spout, also inclined. 



One reads often in authors that the spout of the finbacks and the 

 right whales is double, but if one goes to the sources — that is, to the 

 writings of ej^e witnesses and not to those of compilers — one sees that 

 nothing is in general less proved. Beale (1839) declares plainly that 

 the spout of the sperm whale is simple and is distinguished on that 

 account from the spout of the other whales, which is double, but this 

 seems to apply only to the right whales. Thiercelin (1866, vol. 1), 

 who seems to have been a conscientious author, declares expressly that 

 the southern right whale throws "a double column of white vapor, 

 more or less thick, which rises in the form of a V, of which one branch 

 is shorter than the other." Other observations seem to confirm this. 



It is otherwise with Megaptera (humpbacks) and Balaenoptera (fin- 

 backs). Baer (1864) declares that he has observed that the spout of 

 Balsenoptera is simple, and that, moreover, one onl}^ sees it double in 

 looking at the animal from in front. Rawitz (1900) has also seen the 

 spouts of the humpbacks and of Balxnopter'a imisculus and pliysaluii 

 single. Henking (190l) also figures it single in B. pliysalus. I have 

 always seen it simple, although humpbacks and finbacks have spouted 

 ver}^ near to me, both front view and in profile. 



It seems to me that we have to do here with an a priori idea, sug- 

 gested by the fact that these whales have two openings in the blowhole. 

 But as these openings are very near together, and as the diameter of the 

 column formed by the spout is relatively considerable, it seems to me 



