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CHAPTER VII. 
NATURE OF THE SPERM WHALE’S FOOD. 
It has been stated before (see Chapter ii.) that the food 
of the sperm whale consists almost wholly of an animal 
of the cuttle-fish kind, called by whalers “ squid,” and 
by naturalists, “ sepia octopus,” and at times, when he is 
near, the shore, as in Volcano Ray, or in the straits of 
Corea, it also consists of small fish which are denomi- 
nated “rock cod” by sailors, and which sometimes, 
however, approach the size of a moderate salmon. 
But the instances in which fish of this description 
have been ejected from the stomach of the sperm whale 
are but rare, while every day’s experience proves that 
its common food consists of that division of molluscous 
animals which naturalists have denominated cephalo- 
poda , and of which the “ sepia octopus,” or “ sea squid,' 
appears to be the most common. 
A few words on the natural history of this highly 
organized and remarkable animal, cannot fail to be 
interesting to the reader, as it has excited the attention 
of the naturalist for many ages, from the remarkable 
nature of its formation and very peculiar habits. 
Endowed with hearing, seeing, touch, smell, and 
taste, it is second to no inhabitant of the waters in the 
