62 CLASS-BOOK OF ZOOLOGY. 



white, yellow, or red, and about twenty inches thick ; and 

 the quantity of oil produced from the blubber of a middle- 

 sized Whale sometimes amounts to 20,000 pounds. The 

 value of the oil and whalebone of a large Whale may be 

 from 3,000 to 4,000 dollars. 



5 245. The milk of a Whale resembles that of quadru- 

 peds in its appearance, and is rich and well-flavored. The 

 flesh of the old Whale is black, and exceedingly coarse ; 

 but that of the young, which is of a red color, when cleared 

 of fat, and prepared, is like coarse beef. The brain in a 

 young Whale of 11,200 pounds, weighed three pounds 

 twelve ounces ; while that of a human being of 140 

 pounds weight, is about four pounds. The food of the 

 Black Whale consists of the smaller animals of the fish 

 kind, though its mouth is sufficiently capacious to receive 

 several tons of water at a mouthful. The Whale pro- 

 duces only one young at a time, which is about fourteen 

 feet in length. 



§ 246. The Cachelot, or Spermaceti Whale, (Physeter 

 macrocephalus,) is of the size of the Black Whale, with 

 an enormous head, almost half as long as its body ; the 

 upper jaw without teeth, but the lower armed with more 

 than forty thick, conical teeth, about six inches long and 

 three in circumference at the base. The Spermaceti 

 Whale, which is found in the South Seas, on the coast of 

 Brazil, and in the Pacific, is taken principally for the 

 sake of the spermaceti, which is found in the form of 

 milk-white oil, partly in the body, near the blubber, and 

 in greater quantity in particular cavities in the head ; 

 which oil, exposed to the air, hardens into a semi-trans- 

 parent kind of tallow, called spermaceti. 



5 247. The Sperm Whale fishery is a principal branch 

 of the industry of the United States. The number of 

 ships engaged in this valuable branch of the fisheries may 

 at this time amount to more than three hundred. 



§ 248. The Porpoise (Delphinus Phocaena) is from six 

 to eight feet long, of a blackish-blue color, has a short, 

 not pointed mouth, with conical teeth in both jaws, and 

 is found in the Atlantic. The Porpoise is seen in large 

 u-oops. and feeds principally on fish. 



