THE SPERM WHALES, OR CACHALOTS (PHYSETERIDÆ).
This family includes but two forms: the valuable Sperm Whale (Physeter) and the Short-headed Whale (Kogia). They are unlike in many respects, but they agree in having no teeth, or only rudimentary ones in the upper jaw, while the lower jaw is provided with a series of conical teeth. The dorsal fin is small, either hump-like or high and falcate; the flippers are very short, and situated along with the small eye near the angle of the great mouth. The neck vertebræ are fused together. The upper surface of the broad shoe-shaped skull has a large basin-like cavity, wherein in the soft parts the material known as spermaceti is lodged. The blow-hole is single, and in the case of the Sperm Whale is situated quite in front, but is placed farther back in the Kogia. In both, however, it is somewhat of anf-shape obliquely placed, the left extremity being much wider than the right.
TOOTH OF THE SPERM WHALE.
TOOTH OF THE SPERM WHALE.
SPERM WHALE.
SPERM WHALE.
THESPERMWHALE,ORCACHALOT.[239]—Next to the Greenland Whale the Cachalot is by far the most important animal of the Whale tribe in a commercial point of view. A rare interest, moreover, is attached to it from the daring deeds and hair-breadth escapes of the whalers pursuing it, inasmuch as in certain cases it is among the fiercest of the Cetacea. At times it not only attacks boats and their crews in pursuit of it, but there are also well-authenticated instances of ships themselves being assailed and sunk by this powerful monster of the deep. It attains a size varying from forty to seventy feet, the average of old males being about sixty feet, while the females are much smaller. It is black above, lighter on the sides, and silvery-grey on the belly parts. Its head is of enormous proportions, forming nearly half the bulk of the animal. The snout is extraordinarily dilated and terminates abruptly; the upper jaw quite overhangs the lower, and the bones of the latter are united close together for a long distance, and are furnished with from twenty to thirty teeth on each side. As shown in the woodcut, each tooth is conical and slightly curved, hollow at the base, but elsewhere it is dense and solid. When the lower jaw is closed the teeth fit into hollows in the upper lips, in this respect somewhat resembling what takes place in the Crocodile’s mouth; but besides the remarkable lower jaw, the Sperm Whale’s skull rivets attention from the extensive basin-shaped spermaceti reservoir already alluded to. The throat is very large as compared with that of the Greenland Whale. It was believed that there were several species of Cachalot, but only one is now acknowledged, the Kogia really belonging to a different genus. The Sperm Whale is seldom found in inland waters, but is met with in all the oceans, from the Polar to the Antarctic, though it chiefly inhabits the tropical or sub-tropical seas. Among the favourite resorts of the whalers are the coastsof New Guinea and adjacent parts, Australia, New Zealand, and several of the Polynesian islands, the coasts of Peru, Chili, and California, the Japanese and Chinese waters, the Molucca group, and the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Its appearance in the Atlantic has of late years been irregular and seldom, though at one time it was of tolerably frequent occurrence in the South Atlantic and American coasts, and near the Bahamas. Its steady pursuit for a long series of years has greatly thinned its numbers. About 1770 the Americans, and a few years later the British, in small ships of 100 tons and over, established the Sperm Whale Fishery with very moderate success. Before 1780 the British Government issued bounties to encourage the trade, and this led to the sending out of larger vessels, while Mr. Enderby, a London merchant, pushed the fishery into the far-distant shores of the Pacific. The vessels, of much larger tonnage and better manned, were absent for two or three years, and the scenes of the chase, they say, at times almost defied description. Surgeon Beale’s incident, though tolerably well known, is worth notice. On the coast of Japan, in 1832, some three boats pursued a Whale all day long. By a dexterous move the animal was at last lanced, when it spouted blood, suddenly descended about forty fathoms, and as quickly rose and dashed the boat into the air in fragments. The men clung to the oars and broken wood, and, in spite of the vicinity of Sharks and the Whale itself, were saved by the other boats, the crews of which avenged themselves by ultimately killing the Whale. Of fighting Whales there are numbers of stories, that of one old male, familiarly known as “New Zealand Tom,” being still traditionally recounted in the forecastle. In 1804 theAdonisand several other ships simultaneously attacked the fellow, who destroyed some nine boats before breakfast, but in the end was captured, when a host of harpoons were found in its body. There can be no doubt that the Sperm Whale is a migratory animal, though its migrations are by no means clearly understood. It is a gregarious creature, “schools” of a dozen to fifty or sixty beingoccasionally met with. At other times great fellows are found here and there on lonely pilgrimages, while still at other times a few together will be seenen routeto fresh feeding grounds. Adult females, or those with young in their company, evince a strong affection for each other, and when one is killed or sustains injury, parents or companions hover about and even render assistance. The whalers take advantage of this trait, and often kill a number ere the others make off. When, however, a company of young male Whales are found, and one is attacked, little love or interest in each other’s welfare is manifested, every one rushing off helter-skelter in all directions, to the whaler’s chagrin. The old “bulls,” on the other hand, are more sedate and less easily frightened, and unless roused by injury to retaliate on their pursuers are more readily harpooned. The Sperm Whale is easily known from all others, even at a great distance, from the regularity of its blowing and the manner in which it throws up a volume of vapour obliquely forwards. It traverses the ocean surface in a steady methodical manner, at the rate of four or five miles an hour, its great head or hump-like back occasionally appearing above water. It will remain on the surface from ten to fifteen minutes, and then will descend, staying below an hour or more, but the females and young remain up and descend at more frequent intervals. At times, instead of quietly swimming on the surface, they proceed more quickly by a kind of lunging motion, the head being thrust well out of the water, a mass of spray, technically called “white water,” accompanying this mode of progression. Occasionally they spring headlong out of the sea (“breaching”), or violently beat the surface with their tails (“lobtailing”), or at other times dash about in a variety of attitudes. Sometimes they move their fins as if feeling around for enemies, or throw their bodies awry, bringing the mouth well to the surface. It is pretty certain that Cuttle-fish form a large proportion of their food, though there is reason to believe that they do not despise fish and other marine creatures. It is still a moot point how they feed, and to what use they put their teeth. Some assert that in the depths the under jaw is lowered, and the glistening pearly teeth fully shown; attracted by the latter, its prey approach and the trap is closed. Blindness at times supervenes. Still more curious are instances where the lower jaw is twisted like a shepherd’s crook, and strange to say, notwithstanding this deformity, these Whales seem fat and hearty—this fact giving rise to much speculation whether such malformation has arisen from fighting and distortion of the jaw in youth, or from other causes not yet ascertained. The Sperm Whale has its enemies, the Thresher Shark leaping on it and attacking it from above, while the daring Killer Whale (Orca) assaults it from below. The female, it is said, breeds at all seasons, producing one, but occasionally two, at a time.
The double-bowed whale-boats are manned by six men, and when they approach the Whale one steers aft with an oar while the harpooner plies his craft. As soon as it is struck the rowers “back” away. Meanwhile the creature dives, carrying harpoon and line, or rolls rapidly round coiling the rope on its body. The other boats approach, and as it rises harpoons and lances are dexterously used, and as the blood escapes in volumes, despite its vast efforts the creature succumbs. Immediately after its death the boats are made fast to the carcass, and the ship reached as circumstances best permit. Secured alongside, a man descends, cuts a hole behind the head, inserts a hook, often under most dangerous conditions, especially if the sea is rough. The fat or blubber is cut by sharp spades in a long spiral strip, and pulleys applied, and these skin and blubber strips, termed the “blanket pieces,” are thereupon hove on deck. The carcass afterwards is rolled round and the opposite side similarly treated. The great head meantime is cut off, and floated astern until the trunk is deprived of its blubber. The head is then opened from above, and among the coarse fat and blubber of the forehead—the so-called “case”—is a fluid oily matter, the spermaceti. This substance is handed up in bucketfuls, and preserved in casks. On its removal the wedge-shaped oily and fibrous head-piece, the “junk,” is next secured; head and trunk are then sent adrift. Then follows the “trying out,” that is, boiling the fatty masses and extracting the oil, which operation is done in furnaces, the scraps of fat mainly serving as fuel. Finally, the oil and head matter are casked up, and a fresh look-out from the masthead is kept for more Whales. The crow’s nest is a large barrel on the cross-trees, where a watcher is stationed during the whole voyage. No sooner is a Whale spied than the shout, “There she blows!” or, as the Americans have it, “There she spouts!” is replied to from the deck by a hurried rush to the boats, for each seaman’s kit and provisions are beforehand ready prepared in a bundle, and before a few minutes have passed, the hardy mariners are on their way towardstheir gigantic spoil. Sperm oil, we need hardly say, is exceedingly valuable. The quantity obtained between 1835 and 1872 by the Americans alone is reckoned at 3,671,772 barrels, and the wholesale price has varied during these years from four to ten shillings per gallon.
THESHORT-HEADEDWHALE,ORSNUB-NOSEDCACHALOT.[240]—Under this name, and possibly also that of Gray’s Kogia,[241]an animal has been described which, far smaller in size and in many respects differing from the Sperm Whale, nevertheless is more closely allied to it than to any other of the Cetacea. Whether the two names belong to different or the same species may be left open for the present. At all events, specimens have been obtained at the Cape of Good Hope, the East Indies, and Australia, which so closely resemble each other as probably to belong to one and the same species. This animal measures from six to ten feet in length, and is almost Porpoise-like in general appearance. It has a well-marked dorsal fin behind the middle of the body, short flippers, and the snout is said to be turned up with a margin somewhat like a Pig’s. The upper surface of the body is black, and the under parts have a tinge of yellow or light flesh-colour. The few specimens hitherto obtained afford no information regarding its habits. The peculiar construction of its skull, short, broad, distorted, with a bony division in the spermaceti cavity and other skeletal characters, give it an interest as being an intermediate form between the Cachalot and the Dolphins proper.