Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/540

WHALE. occurring in all the important oceans, but it is most abundant off New Zealand, in the Sulu Sea, about the Cape Verde Islands, and in the Indian Ocean. It occurs more generally in the tropics and warm temperate seas than elsewhere. The sperm whale reaches a length of sixty feet or possibly more, but the female is much smaller than the male. The head is enormously large, forming about one-half of the entire bulk of the animal and occupying more than one-third of the entire length. From the head, the body tapers to the tail, and at last rather rapidly. The general color is very dark gray, nearly black on the upper parts, lighter beneath. Old bull whales usually have a large gray spot on the front of the head. The muzzle is very obtuse, almost as if squarely cut off in front, the breadth of it almost equaling the thickness of the body. In a protuberance on the upper part of it is the blow-hole, which is single, situated a little on the left side, and in form not unlike the letter S elongated. The mouth is very large and wide; and the throat, unlike that of the Greenland whale, is very wide, sufficiently so to admit the body of a man. The upper jaw projects some feet beyond the lower, and is destitute of teeth; the lower jaw has from 20 to 25 teeth on each side, according to the age of the animal. The teeth are conical and slightly recurved, projecting about two inches from the gum. The lower jaw is extremely narrow, the two branches being in contact throughout the greater part of its length; it fits into a groove in the upper, in which are cavities for the teeth. The eyes are small, and placed far back in the head, above the angles of the mouth; the left eye is said to be smaller than the right. Just above the eyes, the dorsal line rises considerably; the dorsal fin is also represented by a protuberance about half-way between the neck and the tail; and these parts are seen above water in the ordinary swimming of the animal, which is at the rate of from 3 to 7 miles an hour, and just under the surface of the water, although when alarmed it swims with greater velocity. The enormous head of the sperm whale is occupied in large part by an aggregation of numerous small chambers separated and divided by connective tissue, in front of the cranium and above the upper jawbones, called by whalers the case, which are filled with the spermaceti; sometimes as much as ten barrels of it occur in a single case. The blubber of the sperm whale is only about a foot thick and is not notably rich in oil, a large whale yielding about 100 barrels. When aroused these whales are dangerous adversaries, and either by biting or striking with the tail they can completely destroy whale boats, while by using the head as a ram they can sink small vessels. The remaining Denticete are mostly of small size and comparatively little importance. See ;



The Mysticete (Mystacoceti, Balaenoidea) include the true whales, those without teeth. They are nearly all of large size, some of them being the largest of living animals. The largest species is probably the sulphur-bottomed whale of the Pacific Ocean (Sibbaldius sulfureus), which reaches a length of 90 feet or more, and the weight of which has been calculated to approach 150 tons. Several genera of whalebone whales are recognized, but the most important is Balæna, to which belong those species that supply the most valuable whalebone and oil. The most important species is the Greenland or Arctic right whale (Balæna mysticetus), which is circumpolar in its distribution, but does not range far to the southward, preferring the regions of icebergs and ice-floes. It attains a size of sixty or seventy feet in length. The body is thickest a little behind the ‘flippers,’ or pectoral fins, tapering conically toward the tail, and slightly toward the head. The tail is five or six feet long, and from twenty to twenty-five feet broad, formed of two diverging lobes, broadest almost where they are united, but with a slight indentation. The pectoral fins are eight or nine feet long and four or five feet broad. The mouth is fifteen or sixteen feet long. The eyes, which are situated on the sides of the head, about a foot above and rather behind the angles of the mouth, are not larger than those of an ox; but the sense of sight seems to be acute, at least in the water. The blow-holes are situated on the most elevated part of the head; they are from eight to twelve inches long, but of comparatively small breadth. The upper parts are velvety black, the lower, parts white. The upper parts, in very old whales, sometimes become piebald, the black being mixed with white and gray. The period of gestation is uncertain; one young is produced at a birth, and is from ten to fourteen feet in length when born. The mother displays great affection for her offspring, of which whale-fishers sometimes take advantage, harpooning the young one—itself of little value—in order to secure the mother. Suckling is performed at the surface of the water, and the mother rolls from side to side, that she and the young one may be able to breathe in turn. The usual rate of progress in swimming is about four or five miles an hour, and whales often swim not far beneath the surface of the water, with the mouth wide open to take in water from which to sift food. This whale is capable, however, of swimming with much greater rapidity. Its tail is extremely powerful, and a single blow of it is sufficient to destroy a large boat. Whales usually come to the surface to breathe at intervals of eight or ten minutes, but they are capable of remaining under water for half an hour or more. When they come up to breathe, they generally remain on the surface about two minutes, during which they blow eight or nine times, and then descend. The noise which they make in blowing is very loud, and the spout of spray ejected ascends several yards into the air, appearing at a distance like a puff of smoke. They often assume, as if in sport, a vertical position, with the head down, and flap the surface of the water with the tail, making a sound which is heard two or three miles off. The Greenland whale is not properly gregarious, being generally found alone or in pairs, except when numbers are attracted to particular feeding-grounds,