The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1880-01-23
From Me NeWs and Courier.
THE CHARLESTON WHALE.
SCIENTIFIC DESCRIPTION BY PROF. F. 6
HOLMES.


known among the fishermen of Nantucket
as "Staunt;" that is, neither a baby-whale
or CALI, a NANNY nor II bull. 1t is young
male OF the Greenland species, the RI,ht
Whale, the whalebone bearing whale, and
IL about half grown. It was named by the
great naturalist, Linu@us, "Baleena mys.
ticetus," because instead of teeth it has
series of Illuminated horny plates or baleen
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 o
!. big 6sh aud friend who had lately seen.
the restored jaws OF the mammofk fossil
shark, and its 500 teeth, which were found
in the mari beds of Carolina, and which
were exhibited at the late Industrial Exhi.
bibition, said &c re 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 fsh.-
My reply was, that the whale was not a 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 a capacious
mouth, throat aud 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 Linnean class of man,maha. They
produce their young alive, and nurse them
with milk as a cow does its calf. The fe.
male whale, like all other nsammalia, 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, are covered with scales. Their Young
arc 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 respiration-the breathing appa-
ratus: Fish arc provided with gilis for
breathing the air in water, but whales have
lungs like all mammalia, and breathe at
mospheric air they are compelled, there.
fore, to come to the surface of the water to
obtain it; hence their nostrils-or, as the
sailors call it Jlop.holes-are found on the
top of their heads. And just here again
1t is we'll to remark that, when whale is
seen to spout the water high into the air,
the water is not, as many persons suppose,
thro .Sn from its lungs, but is forced upwards
by the air that has been breathed, that is, cx.
pired 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 DOW.
of the whales lungs tha. 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 cannon.
There are two different kinds of whales
most sought after by fishermen. The
Greenland or right-whale, and the Cachelot
or sperm-whale. The former is the COM
mon or whale.bon bearer and is more easi.
ly captured than tho sperm. whale, which
has numerous formidable teeth of ivory in
the lower jaw, but is without whale bone or
baleen in either. Three other marked
characteristics distinguish these monsters of
the deep. The right-whale has no fn on
its back, but the sperm.whale has one Oil
is obtained from the bubber 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
ermen know as soon as he sees the jet if it
be sperm, or a right.whale.
In the head of the sperm whale is found
that valuable substance known as sperma-
ceti, of which our fine candles are made;
and strange to say it is from the diseased
stomach or eutrails of this species of whale
ambergris 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. five to eighty feet, the
baleen or whalebone Of the largest individ.
uals being sometimes ten or twelve feet
long, nearly one foot wide and about half.
inch thick.
Old whalemen say the number of plates
OF baleeu in the mouth of the Right whale
numbers exactly three hundred and sixty.
five. ono 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 baleep or whalebone in it's
mouth, as well as could count them, per.
haps there are q few more. Another story
is that the vertobral column or backbone
numbers exactly ffty-two pieces, correspond
ing to tho number of weeks in the year,
but Of this know nothing positively.
The infant whale is called q calf, but
when tho longest plate Of baleen attans the
lnncth ae fhraa faat kn IL e,
called q "Staunt." The full.growu female
Ia n mammv md tho mole n b,ll. tho