SPERM WHALES— ABUNDANCE AND HABITS. 9 



A Sperm Whale came ashore in 1668 in Casco Bay, and the circumstance seems not to have 

 been regarded as unusual in those days.^ 



A person writing in 1741 discourses as follows: "Some Years since, there stranded on the 

 Coast of New England a dead Whale, of the Sort which, in the Fishers Language, is called Trumpo, 

 having Teeth like those ot a Mill ; it's Mouth at a good Distance from and under the Nose, and 

 several Partitions in the Nose, out of which ran a thin oily Substance that candy'd, the Eemaiuder 

 being a thick fat Substance, being scraped out, was said to be the Sperma Ceti; it was said so, and 

 I believe that was all. Whales were often caught formerly between New-England and New-York, 

 and if the Sperma Ceti had really been in the Nose of that, it must have been more common, and 

 more cheap, than Experience tells us, it has been even since this Discovery, and at this present 

 time. As to the Whale Fishery, 'tis now almost as much a Earity in New as Old England; the 

 Fishery of Cod is at this time very great here, tho' still far short of that of Newfoundland." ^ 



OccuERENCE ON THE COAST OF EuEOPE. — In the Eastern Atlantic, also, the occurrence of 

 this species has been by no means unusual. Fleming, in "British Animals," 1828, states that "the 

 Spermaceti Whale often comes ashore in Orkney." ^ In 1788, twelve males ran ashore in the Eng- 

 lish Channel.* Other iustauces of their stranding on the English coast occurred in February, 1689,' 

 1795,8 1766,' February 16, 1829,8 j^ 1825,^ and 1863,'° while others were obtained on the coast of 

 Brittany in 1784," and in the Mediterranean, at St. Nazaire, in 1856, '^ and on other occasions for 

 which dates are not given. 



OcouRKENCB ON THE CALIFORNIA COAST. — Although Sperm Whales have occasionally been 

 taken off the California coast for the past thirty years, it would appear that few have been seen in 

 those waters since 1874. Captain Scammon has cited in his book no instances of individuals per- 

 sonally observed by him. 



Size and color. — The sexes diff'er greatly in size and form, the female being slenderer and 

 from one-fifth (Beale) to one-third or one-fourth (Scammon) as large as the male. The largest 

 males measure from eighty to eighty-four feet in length, the head making up about one-third of the 

 whole. In the head is the cavity known as the "case," from which is obtained the spermaceti and 

 a quantity of oil. The youngest Sperm Whale on record is the one measuring sixteen feet, already 

 mentioned as having been taken near New Bedford in 1842; its weight was 3,053 pounds. 



The Sperm Whale is black or brownish-black, lighter on the sides, gray on the breast. When 

 old it is gray about the nose and top of the head. 



Habits of association, motion, blowing-, etc. — Sperm Whales are gregarious and are 

 often seen in large schools, which are, according to Beale, of two kinds, (1) of females accompanied 

 by the young and one or two adult males, (2) of the young and half-grown males; the adult males 

 always go singly. Their manner of motion is well described by Scammon as follows : 



' In 1663 a Spermaceti Whale of 55 foot long was cast up in Winter Harbor, near Casco Bay. The like hath hap- 

 pened in other places of the country at several times, when, for want of skill to improve it, much gain hath slipped 

 out of the hands of the finders. — Hubbard's History of New England, From the Discovery to 1680. Boston, 1848, p. 642. 



^British Empire in America. London, 1741, vol. i, pp. 188-189. 



'Fleming: British Animals, 1828, p. 29. 



•iGbay: Catalogue of Seals and Whales, 1866, p. 203. 



"Sibbald: Phalainologia, 1773, p. 33, pi. 1. 



liMoLYNEUX: Phil. Trans., xix, 1795, p. 508. 



'Etjtty: f.de Gray, op. cit. 



SHUNTER and Woods: Mag. Nat. Hist., ii, 1829, p. 197. 



9 Thompson: Mag. Nat. Hist., ii, 1827, p. 477. 



'"Gray: oj^. cit, p. 204. 



" Blainville : Ann. fr. et fetr. d'Anatomie et de Physiologie, ii, p. 235. 



I2GERVAIS: Comptes-Rendus, 1864, p. 876. 



