92 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



of the larger whales this expired air is sometimes so impure as 

 to have a foetid odour, and blackens lead paint. The lungs are 

 capacious so as to enable the animals to sustain immersion for 

 a considerable time, but the ribs are less free than in the Eight 

 Whale. A comparison of the thoracic chambers of the Whale- 

 bone Whales with those of the Toothed Whales certainly gives 

 the impression of greater powers of expansion in the former, the 

 skeleton of the thorax in the Toothed Whales approaching more 

 nearly that of the Seals. Yet a large Sperm-Whale remains 

 about an hour below water, sometimes even longer. When it 

 comes to the surface, it sends off obliquely upward and forward 

 a succession of spouts at intervals of ten or fifteen seconds, the 

 expirations, according to Bennett,* making a rushing noise like 

 surf-waves, but no sound connected with inspiration is heard. 

 The smaller Toothed Whales would appear to remain a much 

 shorter time under water, and such as the Ca'ing Whales in 

 respiring make a considerable noise, somewhat like the sudden 

 escape of steam from a valve, or still more like the puff of a gas- 

 or oil-engine. Yet it sometimes happens that a large Finner 

 will thrust its head above water, as at the entrance to Loch- 

 maddy, within a few feet of a boat, perhaps for observation, and 

 no sound be heard or vapour seen. The boatman, in alarm, in 

 this case, shouted that his frail craft would be swamped by the 

 tail as the Whale went under, but, as it happened, the Finner, 

 after inspecting the boat for some seconds, quietly slid below 

 the surface, and, being suspicious, had turned its head seaward 

 and passed out of the loch into the Minch. As on this occasion 

 the sea was as smooth as glass, the blowing of a Whale in the 

 loch would have been seen for miles ; indeed, the heads of the 

 Seals were everywhere conspicuous. Seeing that such forms 

 must come to the surface to breathe, the mode in which they 

 respire during sleep, and, indeed, the position during the latter 

 condition, are at present obscure. Some whalers are of opinion 

 that the Eight Whale sleeps head downward for hours in the 

 water, or at least below the surface, while its tail is at the 

 surface,! and that one has been harpooned in this position. A 

 recent writer, indeed, supports this view by the case of a 



* ' Narrative of a Whaling Voyage, 1840.' 



f D. Gray, ' Scottish Fishery Board's Eeport, 1889.' 



