418 
WHALES. 
Being polygamous, the male is extremely jealous, and will not suffer any strangers to 
approach the limits of his own family. The entire sea-beach is therefore mapped out, so to 
speak, in little domains, each belonging to a separate family, and guarded with the most 
jealous care. As the number of females over which a single male bears sway is about forty 
to fifty on an average, it will be seen that the family must be very extensive when the young 
are added to their number. From one hundred to a hundred and twenty is not at all an 
uncommon number for a single family of Sea Bears. 
]STo family will allow the members of another household to crouch upon their territories, 
and it is very seldom that such an attempt is made. Sometimes, however, trespassers are 
detected, and then there is a general fight upon the beach, in which the animals of both sexes 
and all ages fight with great fury. They will not even permit a human being to encroach 
upon their domains, but advance upon him with such threatening cries and such menacing 
display of gleaming teeth that he is forced to make his escape as he best can. One traveller 
was so hard beset by these animals that he was fain to climb a rock which they could not sur- 
mount, and was watched by them for nearly six hours before he could make good his escape. 
Sometimes an old Sea Bear is seen lying alone in solitary state, not permitting any living 
being to approach him, and continually uttering low, savage growls. 
The males are very tyrannous in their behavior to their wives, and treat the poor sub- 
missive creatures very cruelly. If a mother should happen to drop her cub as she is carrying 
it off, the male immediately turns upon her and bites her as a punishment for her offence. 
These animals seem to be very intelligent, and have a great variety of intonations, by which 
they can express their meaning so clearly that their language can even be understood by 
human ears. Their general voice is something like the lowing of a cow, but when they are 
wounded, they utter long plaintive cries like that of a suffering dog. 
The food of this species consists of sea otters, small Seals, and other animals, which hold 
it in great terror. The Sea Bear, however, stands in considerable awe of the sea lion, and does 
not exercise the same indisputable sway as that animal. The name Arctocephalus is of Greek 
origin, and signifies “bear-headed.” 
WHALES. 
The Cetacea, or Whales, are more thoroughly aquatic than any other animals which 
have already been described, and are consequently framed in such a very fish-like manner 
that they have generally been considered as fishes by those who were but little acquainted 
with the animal kingdom. The entire livelihood of the Whale is obtained in the waters, and 
their entire structure is only fitted for traversing the waves, so that if they should happen 
to be cast upon the shore they have no means of regaining their native element, and are sure to 
perish miserably from hunger. 
With the seals, the young are produced upon the land, and there nurtured until they 
have attained sufficient strength to enable them to cope successfully with the sea waves, and 
are, moreover, attended in their marine excursions by their mothers, who exercise a watchful 
guard over their offspring. The young Whale knows no such terrestrial nurture, but is 
at once received into the bosom of the ocean, being capable from its very birth of accom- 
panying its parent in her paths through the waves. 
Although the Whales bear so close a resemblance to the fish, and are able to pass a 
considerable time below the water, they possess no gills through which they may respire and 
renew their blood through the agency of water, but breathe atmospheric air in the same 
manner as the other mammalia. If a Whale were to be detained below the surface of the 
water for too long a period it would be inevitably drowned, a fact which was once curiously 
exemplified by the death of a Whale which had entangled itself in a rope fastened to a dead 
and sunken Whale, and which was found drowned when the rope was drawn to the surface. 
No injury had been inflicted upon the animal, but it had not been able to disengage itself from 
the detaining cord in time to breathe, and was consequently suffocated. 
