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CHAPTER VI. 
HERDING, AND OTHER PARTICULARS, OF THE 
SPERM WHALE. 
The sperm whale is a gregarious animal, and the herds 
formed by it are of two kinds— the one consisting of 
females, the other of young males not fully grown. 
These herds are called by whalers <s schools/* and 
occasionally consist of great numbers : I have seen in one 
school as many as five or six hundred. With each herd 
or school of females are always from one to three large 
“ bulls the lords of the herd, or as they are called, 
the “ schoolmasters.” The males are said to be extremely 
jealous of intrusion by strangers, and to fight fiercely to 
maintain their rights. The full-grown males, or “ large 
whales,” almost always go alone in search of food ; and 
when they are seen in company they are supposed to be 
making passages, or migrating from one “ feeding ground” 
to another. The large whale is generally very incau- 
tious, and if alone he is without difficulty attacked, and 
by expert whalers generally very easily killed ; as he fre- 
quently, after receiving the first blow or plunge of the 
harpoon, appears hardly to feel it, but continues lying 
like a ‘ ‘ log of wood ” in the water, before he rallies or 
makes any attempt to escape from his enemies. 
“ Large whales” are however sometimes, but rarely, 
