354 LABRADOR 
full-grown male can stay down one hour), whales have 
a huge reservoir of blood in vessels situated in the front of 
the chest, like the pipes of a water-cooler. This blood 
he overoxygenates by repeated spoutings. A whaler can 
tell by the number of blows exactly how long the ani- 
mal will remain below on his sounding. To aérate the 
blood thoroughly, a male sperm whale blows about sixty 
times, once every ten seconds. The females blow for about 
four minutes, and do not remain down so long as the males. 
The elastic, compressible skin is equally compressed by the 
water at great depths; in a marvellous manner the vital 
organs are relieved of dangerous pressure, while an auto- 
matic water-bag valve fills and closes the nostrils so that 
no water is forced in. 
Six species frequent the Labrador coast, though only 
four kinds are still common, — the finback, humpback, 
sulphur-bottom, and white whale. A specimen of the 
largest, the sulphur-bottom, so called from the colour of 
his body, has been taken with a length of ninety-five feet 
and a circumference of thirty-nine feet. The weight of this 
animal was estimated to be two hundred and ninety-four 
thousand pounds. Think of the awful power of the tail 
that can not only propel this mass at fifteen knots an hour, 
but can actually hurl it clean out of water into the air! 
In this animal the baleen, or whalebone, hanging from 
the roof of his mouth, weighed eight hundred pounds and 
reached four feet in length, or somewhat less than half 
the length of the ‘bone’ in an adult right whale. There 
were no fewer than three hundred plates on each side. 
He gave one hundred and ten barrels of oil. So large is the 
mouth of a sulphur-bottom that a boat can row into it. 
