THE WHALE TRIBE. 111 
Fig. 93.—The Sperm Whale. 
teeth. In the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford there is an 
under-jaw-bone of this whale, sixteen and a half feet in 
length, containing forty-eight huge teeth. It can knock 
a boat in pieces with its tail, or bite it in two with its 
jaws. In its immense head there is a very small brain, 
but there is a large reservoir of mingled spermaceti and 
oil in nearly a liquid state. A hole is cut in its head by 
its captors, and this mixture is baled out with buckets. 
By draining and boiling, the spermaceti is obtained from 
this separate from the oil. The blubber of this whale 
is thin, but yields a fine and valuable oil. The sperma- 
ceti obtained from a Sperm Whale of ordinary size 
amounts to about ten or twelve barrels. 
190. The perfume called Ambergris is found in the in- 
testines of the Sperm Whale. It is of the consistence 
of wax, is inflammable, and has a musky odor. 
191. The Sperm Whales are gregarious, forming com- 
panies of some hundreds, with two of the largest as 
guards and leaders. Their food is fish, which they can 
swallow of a large size, for their throats are capacious 
