The Polynesian., 1841-06-26

pears i'm form like the letter S. In the
upper part of the head is large triangu-
lar cavity which is called the " case" con-
tanning the oily fluid that after death is
CONCEALED into yellow graduated mass,
the spermaceti. Beneath the case and
the nostril, is thick mass of substance,
elastic in its nature, which is called the
" Junk" and formed of cellular tissue,
and iniltrated with fine sperm oil and
spermaceti. The mouth extends through
out the whole length of the head, contain
ing in the lower jaw forty-two teeth of
formidable dimensions, and when open, it
is as capacous as good-sized bedcham-
Der, and the roof is covered with a sort of
coarse hair, which serves them to filtrate
their food. The throat, unlike that of
the Greenland whale, is large enough to
admit the body of a full-grown man. The
eyes are small, in proportion to the bulk
of the body, are situated far back on each
side of the head, and are furnished with
eyelids, the lower ones being movable,
A short distance behind the head are
placed the swimming paws or fins, which
appear to serve item not SO much for the
purpose of swimming as to hold their
young, and direct their motion through
the water. The size of full grown
sperm whale is estimated from good au-
thority to be about cighty-tour feet in
length; the depth of the head from eight
to nine feet, and the breadth five to six
feet; the swimming paws or fins about
six feet long and three broad and the
circumference of the body thirty-six feet.
The skin of the sperm whale is smooth,
without scales, although in those which
are old it appears wrinklcd. The color
of the skin is dark throughout the greater
part of its surface, but especially so on
the upper part of the head, the back, and
near the fukes, where it is quite black
while on the sides it assumes lighter tint,
and on the breast it becomes silvery gray.
Aged "bulls," as they are termed by
whalemen, frequently have a portion Of
gray on the nose, above the fore part of
the upper jaw, and these are then said by
whalers to be gray-headed." Beneath
TIC SAIL Is lIIC DIuUpCI vi ldt, NiIICI -, VII
the breast of the largest whale, about four
teen inches thick, but on most of the 9TH
err parts of the body only eight inches.
This bubber, encircling the body, and
termed by the sailors " the blanket" is of
light yellow color, and when melted
down, supplies the sperm oil, affording
not only buoyancy to the animal, but also
a protection from the changes of the eli
mate. The ordinary food of this species
of whale appears to be sort Of cutlle-fsh
called the squid, which they probably Sc
cure by descending a certain distance in
to the ocean, and opening their Jaws, al
low these animals to accumulate within
their mouths, when they swallow them.
The common motion of the whale is
slow, swimming as they do at the rate of
from two to four miles an hour being pro-
PEELED by an oblique action of the hukcs,
like the operation of sculling in the wa
ter, their fins being used only as direct
tors. This mode of swimming enables
them to propcl themselves about seven
miles an hour but the greatest speed is
attained by striking the water with the
broad flat surface of the tlukes perpendlc-
ularly, when at each time that the blow is