3 2 4 



THE 1ND0-PACIFIC AND ITS SHORES 



the supply, as a naturalist subsequently described his expei'ience of steaming into the 

 midst of a ' school ' of about a score of these monsters, the movements and gambols of 

 which afforded a wonderful spectacle. Nevertheless, such vigorous hunting cannot 

 long be carried on without seriously diminishing the numbers of the whales. 



Highly characteristic of the Inclo-Pacific is the cachalot, or sperm-whale 

 (Physeter macrocephalous) , which is much the largest member of the whales 

 furnished with teeth, rivalling in this respect the larger whalebone whales, 

 although of very different bodily shape and proportions. Not that this gigantic 

 cetacean is by any means restricted to the Inclo-Pacific. On the contrary, it 

 inhabits all the seas of the tropical and subtropical zones, inclusive of the Mediter- 



'.'■- 



THE SPERM-WHALE. 



ranean, while in summer it frequently wanders northwards as far as the Faroes 

 and the Shetlands, and as far south as Tasmania. In spite of this wide range, it 

 does not appear that sperm-whales can be divided even into local races, as they 

 seem to migrate from one ocean to another, individuals carrying in their bodies 

 harpoons which had been implanted in the Pacific having been killed in the 

 Atlantic. Before their numbers were so greatly diminished by incessant hunting, 

 it is quite probable that old male cachalots may have attained considerably larger 

 dimensions than any of those killed in recent years. Even now, however, adult 

 bulls of nearly sixty feet in length are sometimes taken. The more slenderly 

 built cows are much smaller, seldom exceeding a little more than half the dimensions 

 of the males. In old bulls the abruptly truncated and squared head is of enormous 

 size, occupying nearly one-third the entire length of the animal. In a cavity of 

 the skull, bounded behind and at the sides by a huge semicircular wall of bone, is 



