A small, peculiarly coloured species from the Cape.
A word must, in conclusion, be said on the economic value of the whales. Fortunately, as they are getting rarer, substitutes for their once invaluable products are being from time to time discovered, and much of the regret at their extermination by wasteful slaughter is sentimental and not economic. For whalebone it is not probable that a perfect substitute will ever be found. It therefore maintains a high price, though the former highest market value of over £2,000 per ton has fallen to something nearer the half. The sperm-oil from the sperm-whale, and the train-oil from that of the right-whales, the spermaceti out of the cachalot's forehead and the ambergris secreted in its stomach, are the other valuable products. Ambergris is a greyish, fatty secretion, caused by the irritation set up in the whale's inside by the undigested beaks of cuttle-fish. Its market price is about £5 per ounce. A lump of 240 lbs. sold for nearly £20,000.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE SLOTHS, ANT-EATERS, AND ARMADILLOS.
BY W. P. PYCRAFT, A.L.S., F.Z.S.
The very remarkable assemblage of animals we are now about to consider includes many diverse forms, bracketed together to constitute one great group; and this on account of the peculiarities of the structure and distribution of the teeth, which are never present in the front of the jaw, and may be absent altogether. Of the five groups recognised, three occur in the New and two in the Old World. All have undergone very considerable modification of form and structure, and in every case this modification has tended to render them more perfectly adapted to an arboreal or terrestrial existence. Flying or aquatic types are wanting. Whilst one great group—the Sloths—is entirely vegetarian, the others feed either on flesh or insects.
The Sloths.
Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons.