The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1882-02-28 00:00:00

"LIFE UNDER WATER."

This was the object of • lecture delivered on Tuesday
evening by the Rev..i. O. Wood, who was slightly delayed
by the non-arrive! of • proper Bopp', of lamps, as wee
explained by Dr. Simpson, wha on Ur. Wood's behalf,
craved the indulgeoce of the audience during the delay.
The Lecturer. on snivel, wee received with hearty
claps of applause. He said that the unfortunate delay wee
no
fault of his; he had roads every arrangement, but the
light on which the sketch lectures so much depend for
themes was quite inadequate, still he would do his beet.
The syllabus, he explained, wee not for publication, end
be should not stick to it. ** life under Wider • is easy
enough to the fishes and other water animal but he
meant to brine before them life under water under almost
insuperable difficulties!, apparently. Take a mammal, for
instance, • warm-blooded creature, which should have to
keep up its warmth in water yeti little above freezing
thint, to find all it. toad in the water, so that it must be
carnivorous. sunposs that it has to make itself heavier
than water, so that it nth dive very rapidly, and even to
depths of a mile, at which depth the lirwieUre of the water
Is so great that it will fill all the Dom . e w°°4 eo that it
will sink like bad efterward& How are we to invent
sack an animal, which has to relieve Had( sadly from that
prootore, sod to mot sit those roookoottata Yet UM

ars all met in the cetacies or whales. They are nob Abbe*
any mere than a cow ie a file, except that they live in the
wain!, a'sl must thersbae have very meth the form of a
tale lc is propelled by a tell, sot up end ilown, in,teel of
ere-sways, ad in ashes In general, end .if which Led the I
nasa of a ship is a clumsy end so powerfully
cin the whale exercise its t%il that spirm nett whet. have I
Wpm seen to Spring OUt of the Water $o high that the
h -rinse ran be oe, n under them. Lit us consider how '
tremendous meet have been the force wises so many tons
mutt have been dud:Weir lifted entirely out ot the eater!
Ile divided whales tut, two sorts the northern. I
lireenian 1, or wba'eb whale, on I the southern.
Autartie, or spermeceil whale, whlcu has teeth in its
leaser is instead of whaleboes. as io the Green- :
line "male. He sketebel the outline of • sperinamti
whale, and pointed out the emanated .1 its eye, which is
net much terser than that of an me I.e. iie quite a speck in
proportion to the sae of the creature, on I the ear is only
large eiseugh to admit • ledy's steel kur.tieg needle ; the
sk silt: &leo comparatively smolt, the welts me so thin, ,
and pressed up so uaucte teat a very little metered goes .
very lens way, and put of the skull bears some
ret nallaac. to an old-fmnioned arm-chair CoVerel with
Mists; it is coiled lid sa on N ,ptu a 4 arm-C
• From the skull the vertebra lead away to tho tail, and
the only teats ot nin I legs are two very small boned and
quite loose. It has rem, on which is placed ihe arm, and
toe hand is celled the 11ippr. r. Wu id then skeicued
toe ton-I. !rein mem ry or Coe hoe up. lisrel Kept la: the
It iyol 'liege of Su glom'. Is tire ann of tme whale,
aueth 0 uts be an elemeut of weaknesa, ii the whole
, middle portion is entirely gone, awl the coil b net are
i wider mod flatter, yet it ha. to. usetsc .11.1 or wrot benee.
I and ring,. with more joints than we have. numbering
live j anti. How does the waste Mihail I By lungs,
eXimiy as we do, and its lungs are an the &ems position
, ours., the win hese in the northern weals goes to the top
ot the whale's body above the skull, but in the mu.beru
whale it pas.. t 'ward+ the front opeutog near 1 124 top 04
what we may call the noes. At the depths to which the
whale sinke, tee water Would press iuto the tubes, and
choke the melees' ; but it is prdifent442 by a system al Valve,
which close the more tightly the more tasty are pressed.
A similar "picket " valve is in toe choextile • teem..
tor emit the crocodile's mouth is 1ip.41 tr'nl can see down
the throat, unto,e you pour • bucket of water down„
When Qui pocket closes the Valve. it will pump from 15
to 46) gallons of blood at each stroke of the heart, aset the
aorta or great blood-veseel la about as 'wee round as •
child's hoop. The warmth of the blood must be preeerved,
and ea the whale cannot have leathers or br, it hae a
atoll better non-conductor of h.t In fat, consisting of oh
con, aimed in • vast number of vesicles, each iudependent
of he neighbours, and only these that are tin give out
their WI. TlLdle vesicles are of elastic texture, the best
titled to siastaiso the , rewire el the wader at greet depth.,
so that Onfli we nave tido problems solved at one—bow
to retain the warmth of the blood, and also to sustain IS,
greet pressure of use water, linter toe blubber are the
nedlnd of gnat muscle* which enable it to sing or rise in
toe water as it like. The whale um to Sold its breath
for an hour; end, tinter greet dicoitios, It can bold its
breath for an hour nod weer.., umis of us can gold
our Mesta for five minutes. It has great bleed vessels,
loge enouah to nil a waggon whims would take four
horses to draw; them fill up tee whole of tee haemostat
spec.. and .nes enable the wants to take down • reservoir
or readraerated blood. The lust think it Ohs to do is to
aerate li. tolood-redervoirs, and this it does by what the
WIWI call "spouting." tatting deep inspiration., and
expelling the most Mr and water ; and these ant
Wise sketched by art ste as if tie whale had two
elegantly constructed founteins on the top of its
head. The southern whs. feed. on cuttle-Ase, seine of
which have mom thirty feet lung, and the southern
weal. has a trerneueous array of teeth in the lower jaw,
with sockets in the upp.r jaw, go that it is utterly tin-
possible to, even that ective and powerful and slippery
creature, the cuttle, to escape. The wnal 's sight Is War,
feeble, yet it drives througe the ma at a pece elsseedisie
that of the swiftest steamers, and when it ktiooks its head
ag dust an iceberg, an elastic appmetst remivestheilioek.
while the illus.'s brains are coinlortebiy stowed & lung
distance beck at the beck of the heed, lt.n reeuires the
whales he wont. the bleeper, and of lee liteenimid whitle
the whalsboee; but oily c.vilhed 'nen la.' been able to
kill the Craaitire, for ha is tee smell laud his Weipnlii are
WO insignificant; he is only onsesixteeuto tee tensile of
toe Wham, cud cli uarpoon 0111410i/1 004141 deeper then the
blubber. They kill it by knowing that it must case up
to aerate ite bitted. and . hip drive at down repeet_ thy, not
allowing it &Irma ice blued, until it gets no "meld that it
turns Ora, exposing the vital forget., which ere peas-
Crated by the wag lame, Mid the wattle is killed. Ilere
the lecturer t how he •as able to beat all competi.uri
in diving watcher, as 1 this was by imitating WI whale,
having his "op 'Libel's." and thurougoly ing all his
lane e la, so that he was able to remain sailer water •
I an I a- lett, MacCdai 13441;0 is general Can oily
hold their breath • iniuute. B.nell In the Witold is almost
iu abeyance, tee urgent beng very entail; eut it he. the
tn•minelian ear. of which the ttl 'phone is .4 clumsy helm.
ti ,n. Under water the val. iCiOni are mach snore 141..1e11t
than in the air, and toe lecturer told how once wheat
experimeniiiie on the he .rins of tilled, he dived and held
On below while t .ey fired pistols ebeve, sad hr heard
n, Alum at ail of it. But •hen down again seine ,ue .truck
the *last With a W dattia.4l.lo/, and it d ,und.xt like Ali
explosion, in lace he came up again almost stunned, If
, the whale hal .0 external ear in prop irtiOn to other IUJIII•
Wain it 11/01iiii it In Ilea( with the rirst blow of i s JIWII
tall; lint it has an eustacei an tube 01 different with.h, at
tee two end., with oar of which it hears sound. in the
air, god w.to the other soun,la in the water. Nee: toe
I.cturer went oo to toe Greenland whale, erhica lives on
a little ruollux, called the click and whereas the spermaceti
i while has ivory teeth in the loser jaw, the northern
tstmle het teeth of another coridtructi tio in the upp.r jaw.
Iti theo el,teeed the wbalebone, watch Is arranged in
ar Ales ccl bases de nin fringes, and the whale with its
'iii at!l open chives tir eieh s 'hod of rho, ditches an
enormous qeentity in hes wesielsone fringes, prmlitt the
eater oet with Its ',ague, and swell swe the Ul/41. of cho.
It is no Bleated terabit. eiiitb the whale opens ate mouth.
!or in it cau 'tom tufo jolly Wit of a win-of-ear with its
oar. out. Having t41.1i ixplumned toes the maims' can live
! sad, apparently imeoesible conditions, the lecturer again
fur the delay, arid returned thanks for the
attention with which he Mitt been listened te.