Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1875-11-24
Whales.

Little Henry had been reading in his
new book about a whale that shivered Il
boat to pieces. throwing the men and
pieces of the boat high in the air. There
was a picture of the scene-the ship in the
distance. the shattered fragments of the
boat and several sailors in the air, the sea
around dashed into foam by the angry
monster and two or three boats nearly
swamped 10y the waves. The picture and
story made deep impression on Henry S
mind. and when his fither came home in
the evening, Henry said:
Father, what do men hunt whales
for?"
Principally for the oil and whalebone
| they furnish answered his father.
. How large is 4 whale?:'
"Tae sperm whale is sometimes one
hundred feet long. The Greenland whale
is from fifty to sixty feet long. forty feet
around, and n large one weighs five hum
drcd thousand pounds"
-" Fire hundrcd thousand pounds. Why
father. what 4 monster" exclaimed Hen
w. You said, yesterday, that our pony
weighed nine hundred pounds. How much
LARGER would the whale be, ftther?'
/" About u large rs five hundred such
horses us ours put together,
Are our Whalcboncs made out OF
whales RIBS" asked Henry.
. BY no means. They all come from
the whales mouth.
From it, l. outh, Why how funny
Please tell me all about it, father"
The head of the whale is the larges
part of sometimes being more than
half the bulk of the whole animal, lh,
mouth is Il n"nstrOuS cavity, but the throa
is very small. So narrow that a herring l.
'hc ltrnrSt fish Il whale can swallow
Hence he mus feed on the smallest fish
and he takes Il large number of these int
his mouth at once. If there WAS not SOM
} provision to guard against il, he would b
checked Bu, there is such provision
and this is the wh"lehonc. or balCcn, rs
i called. These are thin plates. the uppe
rdrcs and sides of which are solid whal
bone, but The interior and lower edges ar
tilament> of fine iibre>. These plates ar
attached to the roof of the mouth. trans
vcrSclv. and hang down like 4 curtain
. Thcv ere close together. there being 81
hundred plates. and they fill the mout
full When the whale takes in Il shoal {
mail fish he is obliged. Also to take in
larg,' amount of water. Now, the baan;
at rs 4 S"trC. changing ana uetalnlh
III" fish, bat allowing the water to pas
through into The throat, from whence 1t
thrown out through the blow holes. A
q Ter the water is all blown out, the wllai
can pas his supper down his throat-on
a .i~h at Il timc-;,t his leisure
! " How curious. said Henry. - BIZ
I father. if the throat is 50 small how coul
the whale swallow Jonah?'
. " The Bible does not say i'll the Old Ic:
i tlmrut. that il was a whale, but Il grca
i fish and the Greek word in the New les
/ lament i Incorrectly interpreted Whale.
! might have been shark. or some oihe
species of fish, with which we are not II
! quriutrL We are certain that it was NJ
e i RIGHT whale. at least"
a How much oil and wlla!cb ne. wi
e one wil:tlr furnish, fathers
: The halccn plates are about ten fec
! lrng. and II there ais six hundred Of thel
e there i six hundred feet in one whale
month. and it is worth from one TO tw
thousand dollars. From three 10 tiy
p thousand gallons Of oil are obtained frol
one whale. and the whole value is ;,bor
$500 There are 4 god many othc
, curious things rbout whales, but we wi
talk about thrm ii another time -BI
ti>t jlion.