NA TURE 



[June 4, 1896 



Barisal Guns. 



In reference to Sir Edward Fry's letter in Nature for May 7, 

 a fuller account of the mysterious sounds heard at |ebel Musa, 

 and Jebcl Nagus, in the Peninsula of Sinai, will be found in 

 Palmer's " Desert of the Exodus," vol. i. pp. 217, 251. The 

 former, which an Arab legend attributes to a fairy maiden, who 

 fires off a gun one day in every year to give notice of her 

 presence, "are," says the writer, "in all probability caused by 

 masses of rock becoming detached by the action of frost, and 

 rolling with a mighty crash over the precipice " (of 3000 feet) 

 "into the valley below." The sounds at Jebel Nagus, which 

 have also a legend connected with them, are undoubtedly due 

 to the friction of rolling sand. From experiments made by the 

 explorers, the degree of coarseness of the sand, the angle of 

 inclination of the slope, and temperature, seem to be the 

 controlling conditions. B. \V. S. 



Hampstead, N.W. 



THE SPERM WHALE AND ITS FOOD. 

 r\ U R fund of accurate knowledge of the Cetacea being 

 ^-' at so low a level, it is to be deplored that trained 

 scientific observers have hitherto had few opportunities 

 for noting under normal conditions the habits of 

 these most interesting animals. And therefore naturalists 

 generally will certainly hail with delight the news of the 

 resolution of the Prince of Monaco to endeavour by all 

 the means at his disposal to make an effective study of 

 that least understood of all the deep sea mammalia — the 

 great sperm whale. .An obser\er like Dr. Scoresby who, 

 while gaining his livelihood by the pursuit of the Green- 

 land whale, lost no opportunity of studying that monster's 

 manners and customs for the benefit of science generally, 

 is still to seek for the world-wide fishery of the cachalot. 

 This may be said without in the least minimising the 

 excellent work done by Surgeons Beale and Bennett, 

 who remain almost the only first-hand authorities we 

 have on the sperm whale. They were not in command, 

 and were consequently at a great disadvantage for 

 making observations ; for the whole crew of a whaleship 

 are co-partners in the venture, and the essential business 

 of oil-getting must on no account be hindered, or there is 

 trouJDle all around. .And since their day, unfoitunately, 

 British shipowners have had little or no interest in the 

 southern whale fishery, while none who know what a 

 motley crowd constitute the crews of .American whalers, 

 will be surprised that no contributions to natural history 

 come from that quarter. I am the more pleased, there- 

 fore, that in the course of my career as a seaman, it 

 happened that I was induced some twenty-one years ago 

 to join a whaleship in New Zealand for a long cruise in 

 the Southern and Eastern seas. .All the average sailors' 

 usual ignorance of the differing characteristics of different 

 whales was mine ; but so interesting did I find the study 

 of these great denizens of the deep sea, under my extended 

 acquaintance with them, that I seized every chance I 

 C(juld obtain to learn whatever I could of them, without 

 any idea at the time of putting the knowledge so gained 

 to any practical use. The first occasion worthy of note 

 here was also my initial encounter with a cachalot. We 

 were cruising the wide stretch of ocean in the South 

 Pacific known as the " V'asquez " grounds, and sighted a 

 small pod of sperm whales, mostly sprightly young cows, 

 under the guardianship of two or three immense bulls. 

 We lowered four boats, and very soon the boat in which 

 1 happened to be "fastened" a medium-sized cow, who 

 promptly returned the compliment by rising bodily 

 beneath the boat and ripping the bottom out of it with 

 her huinp. Of course our connection with that whale 

 was at once severed, the task of keeping our heads above 

 water, with our boat hardly more than a bundle of loose 

 planks beneath us, being amply sufficient to occupy 

 all our energies until we were rescued. In the mean- 

 time the second mate had successfully harpooned and 



NO. 1388, VOL. 54] 



slaughtered another and much larger whale very near 

 to us — so near, in fact, that we weltered in a gory sea 

 lashed into foam by the monsters dying struggles. 



Just before she died, we noticed her in the act of 

 vomiting, and several masses of the matter ejected 

 floated all around us. Some of them were exactly like 

 large blocks of blanc-mange of no particular shape, almost 

 white, but in some instances spotted with various colours. 

 Many of the smaller pieces, howexer, were unmistakably 

 portions of tentacles ; lengths bitten or torn off. These 

 it was most easy for me to identify, even under the 

 awkward conditions, having been long familiar with the 

 leaping or flying squid so often picked up on deck during 

 heavy weather, or taken from the stomachs of albacore 

 (Sioinbcr tliyinnis), bonito {Tliynnus pclainys), or dolphin 

 {Coryphcena hippuris). This peculiar sight, although 

 witnessed under such difficulties, made a very definite 

 impression upon ine, and as I had always examined the 

 contents of the stomachs of such fish as I caught, so I 

 longed to eviscerate the captured cachalot for a like pur- 

 pose, although it was evident that she had probably 

 ejected all the food that her maw had contained. Such 

 anatomical pursuits are, however, quite out of the 

 question at sea in a whaleship. Those who would essay 

 the tremendous task of disembowelling a whale while it 

 floats beside the ship, might indeed be rewarded by a find 

 of ambergris worth more than the whole of the bluljber 

 and spermaceti, but the chances are not sufficiently 

 inviting to tempt whalemen to undertake such herculean 

 labours in addition to the already heavy toil of " cutting in." 

 Long afterwards, while cruising in Foveaux Straits, 

 we caught a gigantic cachalot — the largest I think I have 

 ever seen, e\en in that haunt of monstrous whales. We 

 had an easy capture, for our prize had been previously 

 attacked by some other ship, and in various parts of his 

 body were the disjecta meiiihra of seven exploded bomb- 

 lances. Hardly was he fast alongside when one of those 

 furious westerly gales so common on the southern shores 

 of New Zealand sprang up, and it was well indeed for us 

 that we had a good port under our lee. In spite of the 

 load we had to tow, w^e arrived in Port William early the 

 next morning with our prize all safe, and at once pro- 

 ceeded to cut him in. While engaged in this satisfactory, 

 if filthy, operation, some Maories and half-breeds came 

 off, and civilly asked if they might have the carcase when 

 we had done with it. As it was of no earthly use to us, 

 permission to take it when we cast it adrift was graciously 

 accorded. 



By dint of strenuous toil we got to the last joint ot 

 the vertebra by 4 p.m., and, having disjointed it, the 

 mountain of flesh floated majestically away, to be seized 

 immediately by the waiting beach-men, who, with in- 

 credible labour, succeeded in landing the carcase near 

 the western horn of the little bay. 



That handful of men, six in all, laboured night and day 

 for the best part of a week to get whatever oil was con- 

 tained in the skeleton, bowels, and fat about the muscles. 

 .As we had finished our labour, a grand opportunity 

 presented itself for examining the interior economy ot 

 this whale. 



The vast cavity of the stomach contained a goodly 

 assortment of cephalopoda in a more or less fragmentary 

 condition ; for I should have said that this whale, unlike 

 most, had not ejected his food before his death. Judging 

 from the sizes of the tails and the girth of some of the 

 pieces, I estimated the largest of the squid at not more 

 than six feet long, exclusive of the head. But what 

 struck me as most peculiar was the large quantity of bony 

 fish contained in the stomach of this cachalot. Blue and 

 red rock-cod, groper, barracouta, and sea-bream were 

 there — two or three bushels of them. Some were so 

 recent as to be hardly soiled, and none bitten or damaged 

 in any way except by digestive process. 



How so vast and comparatively clumsy a creature could 



