Page:Natural History (1848).djvu/127

Rh surrounds the North Pole; in former times it probably descended into more temperate climates. It is replaced in the southern hemisphere, by apparently two species, B. australis,. and B. antipodum,.

The Whale, under ordinary circumstances, comes to the surface to respire at intervals of eight or ten minutes: when, after having been harpooned, he endeavours to escape by diving, he sometimes remains half-an-hour submerged, but is greatly exhausted after so long a suspension of breathing. He commonly remains about two minutes at the surface, during which he blows eight or nine times. The steam expelled with the expiration, condensed in the cold air, takes the form of a puff of white smoke, as if from the discharge of agun. ‘The ejection of air is strongest, densest, and loudest, when alarmed, or after a long stay under water. The ordinary speed of the Greenland is much less than that of the Sperm Whale: it seldom exceeds four miles an hour; under the pain of the harpoon, however, it will descend at double that rate of speed, and to such a depth that instances are recorded of Whales coming up with the muzzle covered with clay from the ocean-bottom, and of others having fractured their jaws by the violence with which they had come into contact with the rocks.

"The most pleasing as well as astonishing exhibition of the power and activity of these animals is during the pairing season, when they gamble and frolic in the waters, throwing themselves about in the exuberance of delight, little aware of the approach of their enemies. Some-