Page:Dick Sands the Boy Captain.djvu/85

 A WHALE IN SIGHT. 6$ When a whale gets înto the middle of them he has nothing to do but to open his jaws, and, in a minute, hundreds of thousands of thèse minute créatures are însîde the fringe or whalebone around his palate, and he is sure of a good mouthful." " So you see, Jack," said Dick, " the whale gets his shrimps without the trouble of shelling them." " And when he has just closed his snappers is the very time to give him a good taste of the harpoon," added Captain Hull. The words had hardly escaped the captaîn's lips when a shout from one of the sailors announced, — " A whale to larboard !" " There's the whale !" repeated the captain. AU his professional instincts were aroused in an instant, and he hurried to the bow, followed in eager curiosity by ail the stem passengers. Even Cousin Benedict loitered up in the rear, constrained, in spite of hîmself, to take a share in the gênerai interest. There was no doubt about the matter. Four miles or so to windward an unusual commotion in the water betokened to experienced eyes the présence of a whale ; but the distance was too great to permit a reasonable conjecture to be formed as to which species of those mammifers the créature belonged. Three distinct species are familîarly known. First there is the Right whale, which is ordinarily sought for in the northem fisheries. The average length of this cetacean is sixty feet, though it has been known to attain the length of eighty feet It has no dorsal fin, and beneath its skin is a thick layer of blubber. One of thèse monsters alone will yield as much as a hundred barrels of oil. Then there is the Hump-back, a typical représentative of the species " balsenoptera," a définition which may at first sight appear to possess an interest for an entomologîst, but which really rèfers to two white dorsal fins, each half as wide as the body, resembling a pair of wings, and in their formation similar to those of the flying-fish. It must be owned, ho^ever, that a flying whale would deddeàVj i^ a rara az^îs.