338 THE VARIOUS ACCOUNTS, [N°. 144. ] 
circumference of 40 feet at the thickest part. The females are smaller, 
growing from 30 to 40 feet. It is reported that sometimes, though 
very seldom, a male measures 90 feet. The head occupies the third 
part of the body-length, in mass, however, it is larger, for it is 
quadrangular in shape and in front just as thick and high as behind, 
whilst the bulky body tapers to the tail. The mouth lies wholly 
on the under side of the head. It is a terrible cavity when opened 
and may be up to fourteen feet i depth. The upper-jaw is tooth- 
less, but the under-jaw has from forty to fifty four formidable 
teeth, comparatively as sharp as the canines of a dog. 
‘he sperm-whales live in troops, numbering from a very few to 
some hundreds, and containing many females and young ones, 
under the command of some old males. The young males remain 
in this family till they are strong enough to command their own 
family. Some old males wander about ‘solitary, wild and angry. 
To become the sole proprietor of some females, these males fight 
each other vehemently, and indescribably grand is the sight of two 
troops meeting! The wild and warlike nature and the untamable 
muscular strength of the sperm-whale makes its presence even dang- 
erous. The greatest hatred exists between them and the whale- 
bone-whales, or the fin-fishes, or rorquals, and when a shoal of 
sperm-whales meets with a shoal of whale-bone-whales, the latter 
are immediately attacked with the greatest fury and cruelty. The 
fight between two such squadrons is terrible, but grand, and com- 
monly ends in the flight of the whale-bone-whales, pursued by the 
sperm-whales, not, however, without leaving many dead and terrib- 
ly wounded companions, on which the frightful effects are visible 
of the bites of the sperm-whales, animals that might be called 
“mouth and teeth”. 
Knowing the wild and angry nature of the warlike and pitiless 
sperm-whale, and the rather harmless character of the sea-serpent, 
we cannot believe that a sea-serpent has ever or will ever attack 
such a formidable antagonist. Every one will rather believe that a 
sperm-whale, when meeting with a sea-serpent, would suddenly 
attack it. Moreover, if the sea-serpent was the attacker, it would 
not have had “its mouth always open”,—an unfailable sign of 
great pain — but would have bitten repeatedly the whale! And so 
I firmly believe that one of the three spermwhales, had seized 
with its colossal mouth a sea-serpent by the trunk. The poor de- 
fenseless sea-serpent with its enormous flexible body wound round 
the upper jaw and forepart of the quadrangular head of the sperm- 
