16 
INTRODUCTORY 
of the ocean, the sperm whale, at present, can certainly 
demand the place ; and if his size is so superior, pos- 
sessing also much greater activity, we can scarcely deem 
him the second of the marine mammalia, or a less 
powerful ” than his northern rival. 
But, if naturalists have erred respecting the disposi- 
tion, the food, species, form, and size of this leviathan, 
they have not been less deceived in regard to his 
breathing, during which they have represented him as 
throwing up water with the spout ; this has been 
reiterated, not only by naturalists, but also by poets and 
painters, from the earliest periods— from Pliny’s down 
to the present time, the notion has existed that he con- 
stantly ejects water with his breath, which has caused 
F. Cuvier to indulge also in this belief, because, as he 
states, ei so many persons have been witnesses of it, that 
he cannot for a moment doubt the recital.” 
I can only say, when I find myself again in opposi- 
tion to those old and received notions, that, out of the 
thousands of sperm whales which I have seen during 
my wanderings in the south and north Pacific Oceans, I 
have never observed one of them to eject a column of 
water from the nostril. I have seen them at a distance, 
and I have been within a few yards of several hundreds 
of them, and I never saw water pass from the spout- 
hole. But the column of thick and dense vapour which 
is certainly ejected, is exceedingly likely to mislead the 
judgment of the casual observer in these matters ; and 
this column does indeed appear very much like a jet of 
water, when seen a£ the distance of one or two miles on 
