BRITISH MAMMALS 



back-bone, and eleven foot between the eyes. . . . The oil being boyled 

 out of his head was ^armacitteer 



The first recorded Scottish example was taken at Limekilns, Firth of 



Forth, in 1689. 



Most of the captures of Sperm Whales on our side of the Atlantic 

 have occurred in recent years about St. Kilda and Rockall, where, according 

 to Professor D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson {Scottish Naturalist^ Oct. 

 1918, p. 222), forty-two were taken during the years 1908-1914, all being 

 males except one. 



Thomas Beale, in his work on the Natural History of the Sperm Whale, 

 as quoted by Millais, describes it as " moving through the water with the 

 greatest ease, and with considerable velocity. When undisturbed, he passes 

 tranquilly along just below the surface of the water at the rate of about 

 three or four miles an hour, which motion he effects by a gentle obhque 

 motion from side to side of the flukes, precisely in the same manner as 

 a boat is sculled by means of an oar over the stern. When proceeding 

 at this, his common rate, his body lies horizontally, his hump projecting 

 above the surface, with the water a Uttle disturbed around it, and more 

 or less so according to his velocity ; this disturbed water is called by 

 whalers * white water,' and from the greater or less quantity of it an 

 experienced whaler can judge very accurately of the rate at which a whale 

 is going from a distance of even four or five miles. 



" In this mode of swimming the whale is able to attain a velocity of 

 about seven miles an hour, but when desirous of proceeding at a greater rate 

 the action of the tail is materially altered ; instead of being moved laterally 

 and obliquely, it strikes the water with the broad flat surface of the flukes 

 in a direct manner, upwards and downwards ; and each time the blow 

 is made with the inferior surface, the head of the whale sinks down to 

 the depth of eight or ten feet, but when the blow is reversed it rises out 



72 



