Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/603

 WEYER'S CAVE kenny, and Oarlow ; area, 896 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 132,506. The N. E. part of the coast is low, faced by sand banks, and has no harbors, but the S. E. and S. shores are indented by several bays and havens. The surface rises to- ward the N. W. and becomes mountainous, but the S. E. portion is level. The chief rivers are the Slaney, with its tributaries the Derry and Bann, and the Barrow. The soil is mostly clayey and not very fertile. Oats, wheat, bar- ley, and potatoes are the principal crops ; dairy farming is carried on to a considerable extent. Woollen cloths and coarse linens are manufac- tured. The chief town, besides the capital, is New Ross. II. A seaport town, capital of the county, 72 m. S. by W. of Dublin, on the S. bank of the Slaney, at its entrance into Wex- ford harbor; pop. in 1871, 12,077. It has a Roman Catholic college and a museum of natural history. The manufacture of malt is carried on, likewise the herring, oyster, and salmon fisheries. The number of vessels enter- ing the port jn 1873 was 705, tonnage 62,883 ; cleared, 363, tonnage 38,020; vessels regis- tered in 1873, 97, tonnage 7,927. Four news- papers were published in 1874. WEYER'S CAVE, a stalactite cavern in the N. E. part of Augusta co., Va., about 18 m. E. by N. of Staunton, ranking next to Mammoth and Wyandotte among similar caves in the United States. It derives its name from Bernard "Weyer, who discovered it while hunting about 1804. It is situated in a spur of a range of small mountains* that branches out S. W. from the Blue Ridge. The entrance, having been enlarged, is about 7 ft. in height. The cave contains a number of apartments, beautifully adorned with stalactites and stalagmites and other objects of interest. Washington's hall, the largest chamber, is upward of 90 ft. high and 250 ft. long. Within a few hundred yards is Madison's cave, of inferior interest. WEYMOUTH, a town of Norfolk co., Massa- chusetts, on Boston harbor, 12 m. S. S. E. of Boston by the South Shore railroad ; pop. in 1870, 9,010; in 1875, 9,819. The N. part is a peninsula between two friths called Fore and Back rivers. The town, which is 3 by 9 m. in extent, contains four post villages, viz. : Wey- mouth, East Weymouth, North Weymouth, and South Weymouth. The chief industry is the manufacture of boots and shoes, which employs several large establishments. There are also two fan factories, employing from 75 to 100 hands each, a nail factory, phosphate works, ship yards, a tack factory, an isinglass factory, and a manufactory of fireworks. There is a considerable trade in lumber, coal, and grain. The town contains a large town hall, two na- tional banks, three savings banks, an insu- rance company, 23 school houses, with graded schools and twp high schools, a weekly news- paper, and 15 churches. WHALE, the popular name of the typical or carnivorous cetacean mammals, with fish- like forms, embracing the families balcenidce or WHALE 579 baleen whales, physeteridai or sperm whales, and delphinidce or dolphins (including besides the dolphins the porpoises, grampus, and nar- whal, described under their respective titles). The first two families are of enormous size, with a disproportionately large head, the body tapering posteriorly and ending in a broad tail whose flukes extend horizontally ; this tail, the principal organ in swimming, and especially in coming to the surface for respiration, is sup- ported on a firm cartilaginous basis, having neither bones nor caudal rays; the anterior limbs are converted into fins, enclosed in a uni- form skin, but containing the usual bones of the vertebrate arm, though much shortened and with more numerous phalanges ; the sacrum and posterior limbs are wanting, the only traces being a pair of V-shaped pelvic bones, sus- pended among the muscles and detached from the spine ; V-shaped bony arches extend from the upper caudal vertebrae, gradually growing smaller toward the end of the tail. The cra- nium is very small, the chief bulk of the head being made up of the facial bones ; though the cervical vertebrae are evident in the skeleton, generally consolidated with the exception of the first, there is externally no trace of neck ; the nostrils open on the top of the head, by a double or single foramen, constituting the blow-holes or spiracles, for respiration and the expulsion of water, and not for the exercise of smell ; there is no external ear, and the auditory open- ing is extremely small to prevent the undue access of water; air penetrates into the large Eustachian tubes through the blow-holes, per- mitting the appreciation of sounds both in the water and in the air ; the eyes are small, and apparently very far back on account of the de- velopment of the face. The head forms one quarter or one third of the total length of the body, and the skull is usually unsymmetrical, the right side being larger than the left ; the petrous portion of the temporal bone is at- tached to the skull ' by cartilage; the mouth is very wide, and the jaws are armed with plates of whalebone or numerous conical teeth. The skin is naked, with the exception of a few bristles about the jaws, and beneath it is a thick coating of fat or blubber, preserving the temperature of the body and reducing its specific gravity, and affording the oil for which these animals are chiefly pursued. The older naturalists regarded the blubber as subcuta- neous, but more recent observations show it to be a part of the true skin, the fibres form- ing an open network in which the fat is held. The skin is infested with parasites, especially the crustacean cyamus ceti (Lam.) or whale louse, and barnacles and mollusks are often found attached to the sperm whale and rorqual. The flesh is red, firm, and coarse: the bones are less compact than in terrestrial mammals, and without medullary cavity. Du- ring respiration the conical larynx projects up- ward into the posterior nares, and is closely embraced by the muscles of the soft palate,