112 PYGMY SPERM WHALE PIERS. 



thus driving home the stakes which had protruded from the front 

 of their heads like a vessel's jib-boom. These animals died 

 suddenly. Later the others, which were wounded, went into 

 a "flurry" and thrashed themselves to death against the cliffs 

 and isolated rocks. 



Knowing that the valuable substance called ambergris is ob- 

 tained from the alimentary canal of this species of whale, Mr. 

 Murphy went to Keels and had the stomach of one of the car- 

 casses opened. In it was found about a bushel of the beaks of 

 small and large species of squid, the favourite food of this whale, 

 the beaks being of all sizes from a quarter up to one-and-a-half 

 inch in length, each with a curious growth on the larger end, 

 somewhat like a cock's comb. No ambergris was found. It is 

 known that beaks of the cuttle-fish or squid are frequently 

 found embedded in ambergris sent to market, and Mr. Murphy 

 believes that the irritating action of these pointed beaks on the 

 animal's stomach causes the formation of that material. Other 

 carcasses were then opened, but also without finding real amber- 

 gris. One, however, contained a growth about six or eight 

 inches long and about six inches in diameter, having holes in it 

 like those of a sponge, and varying in color from pale green to 

 dark brown. This was examined by the government analyst, 

 Mr. Davis, who reported that it was not ambergris. It is pos- 

 sible that it may have been an early stage in the formation of 

 that substance, and that the animals were too young to have 

 developed it perfectly. 



The fishermen were unfortunately entirely unprepared for 

 such an unexpected and unprecedented occurrence, and had no 

 knowledge of the great value of such whales, and they destroyed 

 them, with but little if any profit to themselves. Two or three 

 groups of men dipped from four to five hundred gallons of pure, 

 clear sperm-oil from the head of each whale. Very little of it, 

 however, was saved, as they had no facilities for properly handl- 

 ing it owing to the huge carcasses and the workers being ex- 

 posed to the wash of the surf. 



Sperm whales usually swim in herds or schools, or else singly. 

 The schools consist of (a) females and their young, with one or 

 two adult males, and (b) young and half-grown males. Full- 

 grown males go singly in search of food. The Keels school was 

 one of the herds of half-grown males, which had no doubt come 

 northeastward in the Gulf Stream, and then by chance had 



