THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 175 



CHAPTER XV. 



Enormous Supply of Blood in the Whale. — Sir John Hunter's Views. — 

 Whales' Spouts. — The Life. — Spouting thick Blood, dies of Suffocation. 

 — Fluny.— Fin out.— Telegraphing.— The "Glip," or Wake.— "Lob- 

 tailing." — "Breaching" and "Sounding." — Turning Flukes. — Regular- 

 ity in the Spouting, Time of Blowing, Submergence, and Speed of 

 Whales discussed. — Description of Spout. — Errors of Naturalists on the 

 Spout. — Skin of Whale. — Flesh and Blood. — Their Young. — Period of 

 Gestation. — Whale's Office in the Millennium. — Age of Whales measured 

 by the Teeth. — Sand-marks on the Teeth as affecting Question of Food.^ 

 Settling of Whales. — Size of Whales and their Proportions. — My Views 

 indorsed by old Whalemen.— Jumper, and Captain Scott, R.N. — Captain 

 Basil Hall's return from Dinner ashore, and what he saw. — Power of 

 Whales to remain under Water at Will, and Captain West's Opinion. — 

 Opinions of Captains Gardener, CoviU, and West. — No Blood in the 

 Whale's immense Case and Junk. — Queries suggested thereby on Cir- 

 culation and Animal Heat. — Offices of the Oil glanced at. — Cold Cur- 

 rents of the Pacific. — Sperm-whales frequent these. — What Ledyard 

 Brown did. 



The enormous quantity of blood which flows from a 

 wounded and dying whale is a constant subject of obser- 

 vation and remark. That the whales possess a quantity of 

 blood proportionately greater than that of land animals is 

 quite certain. The disposition and use of such a great store 

 was first explained by the learned Sir John Hunter some- 

 what as follows : To enable the whale to descend to great 

 depths, and to remain under water for long periods, it be- 

 comes necessary that it should have a supply of arterialized 

 blood to maintain the circulation. To this end, in all the 

 family there exists a reservoir, composed of congeries of 

 great arteries, which become charged with arterialized blood 

 during the time of breathing on the surface; and it is sup- 



