MAMMALIA. 423 
a certain distance. Immediately a large boat, with six or eight seamen and 
one harpooner, is despatched as noiselessly as possible. When at a conve- 
nient distance, the harpooner, seizing a favorable occasion, hurls the har- 
poon into the side or back of the animal, where it remains fastened by the 
barb. The whale becomes furious, and takes to flight with rapidity. A 
long rope, connected with the harpoon, is immediately thrown overboard, 
in order that the boat may not be drawn under water by the wounded 
animal. After a certain time (half an hour or'an hour generally), the loss 
of blood has reduced the strength of the whale, which comes again to the 
surface to breathe, when it receives a new harpoon that makes it disappear 
again; and this is repeated until the animal is dead. The lives of the 
whalers: are constantly exposed to dangers, of which we have many 
accounts. A single stroke with the tail of a whale upsets a boat or throws 
it high in the air. 
When dead, the whale lies on the surface of the water, where its fat is 
carved into fe ge strips, which are hoisted aboard the ship. After the fat of 
one side is removed, the whalebones are taken, and the body is turned on the 
opposite side, which undergoes the same operation. The carcase and fleshy 
remains of the giant are left to sharks, skates, birds of prey, and other car- 
nivorous animals. 
The whaling business was formerly more productive than it is now. One 
hundred and twenty-four individuals are recorded as having been killed by 
one crew in eight voyages ; but now, five to eight whales are considered a 
rich prize for one voyage. 
_ Fam. 2. PHYSETERIDA, or spermaceti whales, is distinguished from the 
family of whales proper Ws being provided with teeth on the lower jaw. 
They are the largest animals among all Cetacea. The size of the head is 
remarkably large, equalling the half or the third of the whole animal. The 
upper jaw is excessively broad and deep, and has usually a few indistinct 
teeth, almost covered with the gum; the lower jaw is long and narrow, and 
enters into a fissure of the upper jaw, and is furnished on each side with a 
row of thick conical teeth, more or less obtuse. The dorsal fin exists in a 
rudimentary condition, or presents itself as a callous protuberance. There 
is one external opening to the spiracles near the anterior part of the snout. 
Physeteride are more or less social in their habits. 
The genus Physeter is the only one of the family, to which it gives its 
name. ‘The same uncertainty is met with here as in Balena, with regard 
to the number of species. As many as seven species, if not more, have 
been described, and still are not generally adopted, the characters upon 
which they are founded being too vague and contradictory. The latest 
writers on the subject admit but one, P. macrocephalus (pl. 106, fig. 2), the 
great-headed cachalot, or great spermaceti whale; /ig. 8 represents another 
form, that described by Lacépéde under the name of P. cylindricus, and 
given by others as the true P. macrocephalus. If the differences which the 
drawings exhibit are copied from nature, and prove not to be sexual, they 
are obvious enough for specific differences. However, from their gigantic 
mass, which is rarely presented at once in all its parts to the eye, unless the 
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