WHALE TRIBE. 
386 
Sung3, and is, in this manner, ejected every time 
they rise for a supply of air. If the animal be 
wounded, it spouts the air and water with a vio- 
lence sufficient to overset a ship ; and the noise it 
occasions, is heard like the discharge of cannon* 
at the distance of some miles. 
Animals of such enormous strength and magni- 
tude, we might imagine, would spread terror and 
devastation all around them, and make an indis- 
criminate slaughter of the inferior tribes. No 
creature, however, is. less voracious than the com- 
mon whale : almost* no animal substance is ever 
found in its stomach ; it feeds, as some allege, 
upon different insects that float on the surface ; 
according to others, upon the medusa or sea-blub- 
ber. Its food, we are certain must be extremely 
minute, for the capacity of its throat does not ex- 
ceed four inches, a size beyond all proportion, 
smaller than that of other animals. 
The small quantity of food that suffices the 
whale, may justly surprize us, when we consider 
their size, and the numbers of these animals that 
often herd together. Had their voracity been pro- 
portioned to their bulk and numbers, the ocean 
itself would hardly have afforded a sufficient sup- 
ply. The insects upon which they feed are black, 
and about the size of a bean : they are of a round 
form, like snails in their shells, and are seen floating 
in clusters together upon the waves. These the 
whale sucks up in great numbers, and bruises 
them with the barbs or pipes with which its mouth 
is internally covered. Nourished with this food, it 
becomes the fattest of all animals, whether terres- 
trial or aquatic. 
To a slender appetite, the whale adds peace- 
able and harmless manners : it pursues no other 
fish, but leads an easy and indolept life on the 
bosom of the waves, and is inoffensive, proportion- 
VOL II, 3 i> 
