THE SPERMACETI WHALE. 129 
at their base. The weight of baleen which is furnished by a large Whale 
is, about one ton. This substance does not take its origin directly from the 
gum, but from a peculiar vascular formation which rests upon it. These 
masses of baleen are placed along the sides of the mouth for the purpose of 
aiding the Whale in procuring its food and separating it from the water. 
The mode of feeding which is adopted by the Whale is as follows. The 
animal frequents those parts of the ocean which are the best supplied with the 
various creatures on which it feeds, and which are all of very small size, as is 
needful from the size of its gullet, which is not quite two inches in diameter. 
Small shrimps, crabs, and lobsters, together with various molluscs and 
medusze, form the diet on which the vast bulk of the Greenland Whale is 
sustained. Driving with open mouth through the congregated shoals of 
these little creatures, the Whale engulphs them by millions in its enormous 
jaws, and continues its destructive course until it has sufficiently charged its 
mouth with prey. Closing its jaws and driving out through the interstices of 
the whalebone the water which it has taken together with its prey, it retains 
the captured animals which are entangled in the whalebone, and swallows 
them at its ease. 
The Whale is an animal of very great value to civilized and to savage men. 
The oil which is procured in great quantities from its blubber and other 
portions of its structure is almost invaluable to us, while the bones and 
baleen find their use in every civilized land. To the natives of the polar 
regions, however, the Whale is of still greater value, as they procure many 
necessaries of life from various parts of its body, eat the flesh, and drink the 
oil. Repulsive as such a diet may appear to us who live in a comparatively 
warm region, it is an absolute necessity in those ice-bound lands, such 
oleaginous diet being needful in order to keep up the heat of the body by a 
bountiful supply of carbon. 
As far as is yet known, the Greenland Whale produces only a single cub 
at a birth, When first born, the young Whale is without the baleen, 
depending upon its mother for its subsistence like any other young mammal. 
The maternal Whale keeps close to her offspring until the baleen is grown, 
and does not forsake it until it is capable of supporting itself. The young 
Whales, before the baleen has developed itself, are technically termed 
“suckers,” and when the baleen is six feet in length they are called by the 
name of “ size.” 
THE CACHALOT, or SPERMACETI WHALE, is one of the largest of the 
Whales, an adult male, or “old bull,” as it is called by the whalers, measuring 
from seventy to eighty feet in length, and thirty feet in circumference. The 
head is enormously long, being almost equal to one-third of the total length. 
Upon the back there is rather a large hump, which rises abruptly in front 
and tapers gradually towards the tail. The colour of the Cachalot is a 
blackish grey, somewhat tinged with green upon the upper portions of the 
body. Round the eyes and on the abdomen it is of a greyish white. 
This species is chiefly notable on account of the valuable substances which 
are obtained from its body, including oil and spermaceti. The oilis obtained 
from the blubber, which is not very thick in this animal, being only fourteen 
inches in depth on the breast and eleven inches on the other parts of the 
body, and is therefore not so abundant in proportion to the size of the 
animal as that which is extracted from the Greenland Whale. Its superior 
quality, however, compensates fully for its deficiency in quantity. The layer 
of blubber is by the whalers technically called the “blanket,” probably in 
allusion to its office in preserving the animal heat. 
The spermaceti is almost peculiar to a few species of the genus Catodon, 
and is obtained as follows :— 
&E 
