Life and Adventure in the South Pacific

by John D. Jones

SPERM WHALE.

In a full-grown male sperm whale of the largest size the dimensions may be given as follows: Length, from eighty to ninety feet; depth of head, from ten to twelve feet; breadth, from seven to ten feet; depth of body, from sixteen to eighteen feet; swimming paws, or fins, about eight feet long and three broad; the tail, or flukes, have been previously mentioned.

In reviewing the description of the external form and some of the organs of the sperm whale, it will, perhaps, not be uninteresting if some comparison is instituted between them and the corresponding points of the right whale. One of the greatest peculiarities of the sperm whale, which strikes, at first sight, every beholder, is the apparently disproportionate and unwieldy bulk of the head; but this, instead of being, as might be supposed, an impediment to the freedom of the animal’s motion in his native element, is, on the contrary, in some respects very conducive to his lightness and agility. A great part of the bulk of the head is composed of a large, thin, membraneous case, containing, during life, a thin oil of much less specific gravity than water, below which again is the junk, which, although heavier than the spermaceti, is still lighter than the element in which the whale moves; consequently, the head is lighter than any other part of the body, and will always have a tendency to rise, at least so far above the surface as to elevate the nostril, or “spout-hole,” sufficiently for all purposes of respiration. In case the animal should wish to increase his speed to the utmost, the narrow anterior and inferior surface, which bears a resemblance to the cut-water of a ship, and which would, in fact, answer the same purpose to the whale, would be the only part exposed to the pressure of the water in front, enabling him thus to pass, with the greatest ease and celerity, through the boundless track of his wide domain.

RIGHT WHALE.

It is in the shape of the head that the sperm whale differs, in the most remarkable degree, from the right whale—the shape of whose head more resembles that of a porpoise—and in it the spout-hole is situated much farther back, rendering it seldom or never necessary for the nose to be elevated above the surface of the water. The eyes, in both the sperm and right whale, are exceedingly small in comparison with their bulk; still, they are tolerably quick-sighted. We are not aware that the sperm whale possesses, in any respect, any superiority. We again observe, in the formation of the mouth, a very remarkable difference in the two animals; for, in place of the enormous plates of whalebone which are found attached to the upper jaw of the right whale, we only find depressions for the reception of the teeth of the lower jaw, which plainly point out that the food of the two animals must be very different.

RIGHT WHALE BONE.

There are several prominences or humps on the back of the sperm whale, which constitutes another difference in their external aspect. These prominences are not altogether peculiar to the sperm whale, as there is a species of fish, called by whalemen “humpbacks,” which possesses a prominence on the back very similar to that of the sperm whale.

The skin of the sperm whale is smooth, but occasionally, in old whales, wrinkled. The color of the skin, over the greatest part of the body, is very dark. In different whales there is considerable variety of shade; some are even piebald. “Old bulls,” as full-grown males are called by whalemen, have generally a portion of gray on the nose above the fore-part of the upper jaw, and they are then said to be “gray headed.” In young whales the “black skin,” as it is called, is about three eighths of an inch thick, but in old ones it is not more than one eighth.