THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 243 
vessel was whaling in the vicinity of thé Society 
{slands, when one of these animals, having grazed 
: its back in passing beneath the vessel’s keel, became 
enraged, and after swimming to some distance, sud- 
denly turned, and rushed with amazing force against 
the ship. The helmsman vainly endeavoured to 
avoid the blow, and the animal, repeating the attack, 
stove in the ship’s bows, when she speedily filled 
and went down, barely allowing the hands on board 
time to take to the boat. Those who were out in 
pursuit, seeing, to their astonishment, their vessel 
sink without any apparent cause, hastened to the 
spot, and the whole crew found themselves in open 
boats, three thousand miles from the coast of Chili, 
to which they determined to proceed, but where 
three or four only arrived, after painful and pro- 
tracted sufferings. 
The Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus) attains 
a greater length than the Greenland Whale, from 
which it is at once distinguished by the remarkable 
form of the head. As in the latter, the head occu- 
pies about one-third of the entire length, but it 
is of the same thickness throughout, appearing as 
if it had been suddenly cut off at the muzzle; so 
that the head bears no small resemblance to a huge 
box. There is no whalebone; but the lower jaw, 
which. is narrow, and fits into the upper, is armed 
with a series of sharp teeth, which are received into 
hollows in the upper gums. The blow-hole is placed 
at the front angle of the head; the eye is just above 
the inner corner of the mouth, and over this, where 
the head joins the body, there is a hunch, called the 
