Page:The American Naturalist Volume 31.djvu/361

 might be a biow-hole; but Dr. Webb states, that it is a "sulcus" or pit about two feet long and six inches deep, apparently not connected with the interior cavity and probably due to mutilation. The specimen was doubtless floated ashore by the gases of decomposition accumulated in the interior cavity, indicating the absence of any free external opening to it, from which the gases could escape.

Photographs made of the under side of the thicker part, when it was turned up by powerful tackle, show an irregular roughness on that side, extending well forward, but not to the end. This roughness may be due to abrasion, or it may show where the skull was attached. If the mass really came from the head of a sperm whale, it would seem that it must have projected farther forward beyond the upper jaw than does the nose of an ordinary sperm whale, and it would, apparently, have been much broader and blunter, or "bottle-nosed." It is possible, of course, that its form has changed considerably since death; but in view of its wonderful toughness and firmness, no great change of the larger end, supposed to be the anterior or nose-end, is probable. All the pulling and hauling and turning of it partly over, by the aid of six horses and strong tackle, have not served to change its shape materially, or rather its elasticity serves to restore it to its former shape. Its toughness and elasticity remind one of the properties of thick vulcanized rubber.

It is possible to imagine a sperm whale with an abnormally enlarged nose, due to disease or extreme old age, which, if detached, might resemble this mass externally at least. It seems hardly probable that another allied whale, with a big nose, remains to be discovered. Notwithstanding these difficulties, my present opinion, that it came from the head of a creature like a sperm whale in structure, is the only one that seems plausible from the facts now ascertained.