DUGONGS, MANATEES, WHALES, PORPOISES, DOLPHINS 295 
but many of the fingers contain more bones than the fingers of man. In some whales we 
find a dorsal fin, and this, as also the flippers, acts as a balancer. In no whale or 
porpoise is there any external trace of hind limbs, but the skeleton of some kinds shows in 
varying stages of degradation a rudimentary bone answering to this description. Perhaps, 
however, the most distinctive feature of whales is the blow-hole, situated, like the nostrils 
of the hippopotamus, on the upper surface of the head, and similarly enabling the animal to 
breathe the air without exposing much of its head above the surface of the water. The 
blow-hole (or blow-holes, for whalebone-whales have two) may be said to take the place of 
nostrils as regards the breathing, though perhaps no sense of smell is included in its functions. 
In the Sperm-whale, or Cachalot, there is a single q-shaped blow-hole near the end of the 
snout. The well-known spouting of whales is merely the breathing out of warm vapour, which, 
on coming in contact with the colder air— and it should be remembered that most whaling is 
carried on in the neighbourhood of icebergs — condenses in a cloud above the animal’s head. 
I have seen many a sperm-whale spout, and the cloud of spray, often mixed with a varying 
volume of water if the whale commences to blow before its blow-hole is clear of the surface, 
drifts forward over the forehead. This is due to the forward position of the blow-hole. I never 
to my knowledge saw a whalebone-whale spouting, but its double jet is said to ascend vertically 
over its back, and this would in like manner be accounted for by the more posterior position 
of the blow-holes. Having filled its lungs, which are long and of simple structure, with fresh 
air, in enormous draughts that fill the great cavities of its chest, the whale sinks to the 
depths. There, in ordinary circumstances, it will lie for a quarter of an hour or more, but | 
the pain of the harpoon and the knowledge that there is danger at the surface may keep it 
below for as much as an hour. When it has to breathe again, a few powerful strokes from 
the laterally set tail suffice to bring it quickly to the surface. This is not the place for a 
detailed anatomy of the whale, but no one can fail to notice with admiration such parts of 
its equipment for the battle of life as the structure of its windpipe, which enables it to breathe 
with comfort with its mouth full of water, the complicated network of blood-vessels that 
ensures the slow and thorough utilising of all the oxygen in its lungs while it remains at the 
bottom, and the elastic cushion of blubber that makes this gigantic animal indifferent to 
extremes of pressure and temperature. Thanks mainly to its coat of blubber, the whale 
exists with equal comfort at the surface or hundreds of fathoms below it; in the arctic or in 
tropical seas. 
It is not perhaps in keeping with the plan of this work that we should consider in detail 
the soft parts of the whale’s inside. One or two parts of its feeding and digestive mechanism 
may, however, offer some points of passing interest. The complex stomach, which is divided 
into chambers, like that of the ruminants already described, has suggested that the latter function 
esrae nests : geese is - * 
Photo by A 'S. Rudland & Sons 
SHORT-BEAKED RIVER-DOLPHIN 
In this type the head is produced into a beak, supported in the upper jaw by a mass of ivory-like bone 
