188 NIMROD OF THE SEA; OH, 



ting the known pi'oportions of his ship. " Let me see. Prom 

 just forrard of fore-swifter to the main-swifter, wellj say 

 forty-five feet, and you have his eye ; allow one-third for the 

 head, and yon have seventy-two. Well, now, seventy-two 

 feet is a long whale; but I never measured one." The 

 largest whale we took made one hundred aud seven barrels. 

 Its length was 79 feet; from the nose to the bunch of the 

 neck, 26 feet; thence to the hump, 29 feet; from hump to 

 tail, 11 feet; length of tail, 1 feet; breadth of tail, 16 feet 

 6 inches; height at forehead, 11 feet; width, 9 feet 6 inch- 

 es; girt at fin, 41 feet 6 inches; at junction of tail, 1 feet 9 

 inches; lower jaw, 16 feet long, and 41 inches in circum- 

 ference at thick part. It had 51 teeth, the heaviest weigh- 

 ing 25 ounces. Blubber on back, 18 inches; on side, 12 

 to 15 inches;, and belly, 9 to 10 inches. The hump was 

 two feet above the level. The case made 19 barrels; body, 

 73^ barrels; junk, 14-^ barrels. Captain Sullivan, of the 

 James Arnold, of New Bedford, off New Zealand, took 

 in one voyage eight whales that made over 100 barrels 

 each, the largest yielding 137 barrels. The head of this 

 made 52 barrels, and the case baled 27 barrels. It was 

 90 feet long; the flukes 18 feet, jaw 18 feet, case 22 feet, 

 and forehead 13^ feet high. During the same season and 

 on the same ground, Captain Vincent, ship Oneida, of New 

 Bedford, took ten sperm-whales, which stowed 1140 barrels. 

 Captain Norton, ship Monka, of New Bedford, took on the 

 offshore ground a sperm-whale that stowed 145 barrels; 

 the dimensions of this monster were not taken. The pro- 

 portions of. whales vary much with the sex and age. The 

 young bulls and the cows are slender ; the cows are about 

 one-third the size of the bull, when measured by the oil they 

 yield. Such is about the sum, embodied in rough and des- 

 ultory notes, of what I saw and learned of the sperm-whale. 

 I have striven to avoid guessing, and to note that which 

 came to my simple, untrained senses. Most of these obser- 



