You see from the difference between these whales’ points that the rorqual is a more athletic beast than the Right whale.
Right Whales and Sperm up to 60 Feet, Finners up to 110 Feet
1. Greenland Right whale, Balæna Mysticetus, up to 60 feet in length, generally found near Arctic ice. The smaller whalebone whale of the Atlantic and Southern oceans is somewhat similar in shape; it runs to 50 feet; shows tail as it dives; has no fin on back. It is called the Nordcapper or Biscayensis and Australis.
2. The Sperm or Cachalot, Physeter Macrocephalus. A toothed whale 50 to 60 feet; shows tail when it dives; sometimes breaches, i.e. leaps several times in succession as it travels; blast low and projected forward.
3. Seihvale, Balænoptera Borealis, 40 to 50 feet; blast about 10 feet; does not usually lift tail out of water before final dive; has fin on back, is therefore a “finner.”
4. Fin whale, Balænoptera Musculus, up to 75 feet. The Blue whale, Balænoptera Sibbaldii, is similar, with smaller fin on back; both make blasts about 18 feet. The Blue whale in Southern seas has been killed up to 110 feet.
The sperm or cachalot whale’s head is very peculiar. It has teeth in lower jaw and a small tongue. All the part forward of the dotted line here, which represents the skull of the head, is a mass of fibrous oil. When you cut through the skin you can bail it out with pitchers or pump it out till it gets too cold, after which you do not know whether to lift it in your hands or in a bucket. It is beautifully clear, no one knows why it has this extraordinary spongy forepart to its head. This sperm oil is chemically different from the oil of other whales; it is more of the nature of a wax: the other whales are of a fatty nature. It makes the finest lubricant for modern machinery.
Head of a Sperm, showing Skull