The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1880-01-23
From The News and Courier.
THE CHARLESTON WHALE.

A SCIENTIFIC DESCRIPTION BY PROF. F. s
HOLMES.
The animal lately captured in this harbo,
is small whale about half grown aud
known among the fishermen of Nantucke
as "Staunt;" that is, neither baby whale
or calf, a nanny nor IL bull 1t is a Young
male OF the Greenland species, the Rmh
Hhale, the whalebone bearing whale, and
ID about half grown. 1t was named by the
great naturalist, Linuaus, "Baleena mys
ticctus," because Instead of teeth il has a
series of Illuminated horny plates or baccn
IN each upper jaw placed trausversely, and
which hang pendant therefrom there are
neither teeth nor baleen in the lower Jaw.
Whales have no scales like fish, but are
covered with q smooth skin. Frequently
you hear the remark from visitors, what a
biz fish and friend who had lately seen
the restored Jaws or the mammoth fossil
shark, and its 500 teeth, which were found
i'll the mari beds of Carolina, and which
were exhibited at the late Industrial Exhi-
bibition, said to me that he had greatly ad
mired it, but after seeing this whale he
could not believe it possible for the shark
to have been the largest Of the too fish,
My reply was, that the whale was not fish.
Although the whale is entirely an inhabi-
tant of the sea, it is by no means strictly
scientific to call it fish. The shark is a
true fish, and the fossil species being one
hundred and fifty feet long, with capacious
mouth, throat and stomach, could easily
have swallowed two such pigmies as this
"hobble-de-hoy" whale, which is only forty
feet and four inches in length.
Now, word or two about the character
istics of whales and fish. Whales belong
to the Lnn@an class of man,malia They
produce their young alive, and nurse them
with milk as a cow does its calf The fe-
male whale, like all other n,ammalia, watch
over and protect their young with great
care. The mother whale is often seen fol-
lowed by twin baby-whales, which the sail.
ors call cubs, and these cubs generally swim
one on each side of the mother.
1t is not SO with fish, which, on the other
hand, arc covered with scales. Their Young
are hatched from eggs, (spawn) and the
young fish takes care Cf ITSELF as it derives
no nourishment from the mother.
Another marked difference is seen in the
organs of rcspiration-the breathing appa-
ratus. Fish are provided with gils for
breathing the air in water, but whales have
lungs like all mammalia, and breathe at.
mospherlc air; they arc compelled, there
fore, to come to the surface of the water to
obtain 1t hence their nostrils-or, as the
sailors call it Jto,o holcs-arc found on the
top of their heads. And just here again
it is well to remark that, when whale is
seen to spout the water high into the air,
the water is not, as many persons suppose,
thro vn from its lungs, but is forced upwards
by the air that has been breathed, that is, cx-
pircd from the lungs of the whale, which
ut the very moment that we see the spout
may be twenty or thirty feet below the sur.
face of the sea. Such is the immense pow
of the whales lungs thai this jet of water
is thrown forty and sometimes fifty feet
above the surface. The sound thus occa-
stoned is the whales substitute for voice,
and, in the case of violent respiration, it
resembles the discharge Of a cannon.
There are two different kinds of whales
most sought after by fishermen. The
Greenland or right-whalc, and the Cachclot
or sperm-whale. The former is the COM
mon or whale. bone bearer and is more casi-
ly captured than the sperm.whalc, VIII
has numerous formidable teeth of ivory in
the lower jaw, but is without whale. bone or
balcen i'll either. Three other marked
characteristics distinguish these monsters of
the deep. The right.whale has no fill on
its back, but the sperm whale has one Oil
is obtained from the blubber in the skin of
the right-whale, but only from the head of
the sperm. They spout the water differ
emily, one throws up two jets and the other
only one. The nostrils in the one are di-
vided like those in man, whereas, in the
other it is single blow hole; thus the fish,
crmcn know as soon as he sees the Jet if it
be a sperm, or right whale.
In the head of the spcrmwhalc is found
that valuable substance known as spcrma-
ceti, Of which our fine candles are made ;
and strange to say it is from the diseased
stomach or entrais of this species of whale
ambcrgris is obtained. which is used in the
fine chemical perfumes, and is exceedingly
valuable.
A full-grown "Right Whale" attains the
length of from sixty.ive to eighty feet, tho
balten or whalcbonc Of the largest individ.
uals being sometimes ten or twelve feet
long, nearly one foot wide and about half
inch thick.
Old whaemen say the number of plates
Of bacen in the mouth of the Right whale
numbers exactly three hundred and sixty.
five. one for every day in the year but this
is fabulous story-a myth. The Charles.
ton specimen has three hundred and seven
ty-two plates of balecn or whalebonc in its
mouth, as well as | could count them, per-
haps there are few more Another story
is that the vcrtobral column or backbone
numbers exactly titty-two pieces, correspond
ing to the number Of weeks in the year,