THE WHALE, 159

entirely of blubber. A large whale yields about twenty tons
of oil, which is expressed from the blubber. It is for this
and the whalebone that this animal is deemed so valuable,
and for which it is so much sought by whalefishers. The
sense of seeing in the whale is very acute. Under the
surface of the water they discover one another at an amazing
distance. They have no voice, but in breathing or blowing
they make a loud noise.

The usual rate at which whales swim seldom exceeds four
miles an hour, but for a few minutes at a time they are
capable of darting through the water with amazing velocity,
and of ascending with such rapidity as to leap above the
surface. This feat they perform as an amusement, apparenily
to the high admiration of distant spectators. Sometimes they
throw themselves in a perpendicular posture, with the head
downwards, and rearing their tails on high, beat the water
with awful violence. Sometimes they shake their tails in the
air, which, cracking like a whip, resound to the distance of
two or three miles. The flesh of the whale, though it would
be rejected by the dainty palates of refined nations, is eaten
with much relish by the Eskimo, and the inhabitants
along the coasts of Hudson’s Bay and Davis’s Straits, who
esteem it a staple article of subsistence.

Other whales of this sub-order are the common Fin Whale,
which is said to reach eighty feet in length, the lesser Fin
Whale and the Humpback Whale. In these, the yield of
whalebone and oil is so small that they are not thought
worth the trouble of catching.

The Sperm The Sperm Whale rarely exceeds sixty feet in

Whale. length and lives in warm regions, such as the
Indian Ocean; rarely, if ever, visiting Arctic or European seas.
Its yield of oil is said to be less than that of the Greenland
whale but it is of a finer quality. Ambergris is also produced
from the body of the sperm whale.

TheDolphin This is a lar creature, so like the porpoise