LECTURE IV. 145 



4;hat the quantity of blood thrown into it at every 

 pulsation of the heart, is not less than from ten to 

 fifteen gallons. 



The strength of the great Northern Whale is 

 prodigious ; it is able to shatter a strong canoe in 

 pieces with a single stroke of its tail : it swims, 

 according to the computation of Cepede, at the 

 rate of about thirty-three feet in a second, and it 

 is further computed that in the space of about 

 forty-seven days, it might circumnavigate the 

 globe in the direction of the equator, even allow- 

 ing it to rest by night during the whole time. It 

 is supposed to be an extremely long-lived animal. 

 The female produces, in general, but one young 

 at a birth, which usually measures something more 

 than twenty feet in length ; and she has the repu- 

 tation of being very tenderly attached to her 

 offspring*. 



The least of all the Whalebone- Whales or Lin- 



* B. Glacialis or Nord-Caper is a very large species of Whale, 

 but thinner in proportion than the Mysticete : it is an extremely 

 voracious animal ; preying on many kinds of fish, and in par- 

 ticular on Cod and Herring. In the stomach of this Whale 

 have been observed three hundred Cod : and in the stomach of 

 a second individual were found more than a tun of herrings, 

 LECT. I. L 



