The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-02-07
An Arctic Visitor in Southern Waters.

L fC6 IT6SS.
An Arctic Visitor in Southern Waters.
The animal lately captured in this
harbor is a small whale about half
grown, and known among the fisher
men OF Nantucket as " staunt;'' that
is, neither baby whale nor a calf, a
nanny nor bull. 1t is a young male
OF the Greenland species, the right
whale, the whalebone- bearing whale,
and is about half grown. 1t was named
by the great naturalist, Linnaus.
"Baleena mysticetus'' because instead
OF teeth it has series of Illuminated
horny plates or baleen in each upper
jaw placed transversely, and which
hang pendant therefrom; thers are
neither teeth nor baleen in the lower Jaw.
Whales have no scales like fish, but
are covered with smooth skin. FIRE.
quently you hear the remark from
visitors, "What big fishr' and a
friend who had lately seen the restored
Jaws OF the mammoth shark and its.
800 teeth, which were found in the
mari beds of Carolina. and which were
exhibited at the late Industrial Exhibit
ton, said to me that he had greatly
admired it, but after seeing this whale
he could not believe it possible for the
shark to have been the largest of the
two fish. My reply was that the whale
was not fish. Although the whale is
entirely an inhabitant of the sea, it is
by no means strictly scientific to call it
a fish. The shark is true fish, and
the fossil species being $50 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-four
feet and four inches in length.
Now, word or two about the char
acteristics of whales and fish. Whales
belong to the Linn@an class of man.
malta. They produce their young
alive. and nurse them with milk as a
COW does its calf. The female whale.
like all other mammalia, watch over
and protect their young with great care.
The mother whale is often seen fol-
lowed by twin baby whales, which the
sailors call cubs, and these cubs gener-
ally 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 are Matched from
eggs (spawn) and the young fish takes
care of itself, as it derives no nourish-
ment from the mother. Another
marked difference is seen in the organs
of respiration-the breathing appara-
tus. Fish are provided with gills for
breathing the air in water, but whales
have lungs like all mammalia, and
breathe atmospheric air; they are COM
PEELED, therefore, to come to the sur
face of the water to obtain it; hence
their nostrils-or as the sailors call
them, blow-holes-ar 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, thrown, FROM. ite 1,.rg5 uuU is
forced upwards by the air that has
been breathed, that is, expired from
the lungs of the whale, which at 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
power of the whales lungs that this jet
of water is thrown forty or fifty feet
above the surface. The sound thus oc-
casioned is the whales substitute for
voice, and, in the case of violent res
piration, it resembles the discharge of
a 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 common or whalebone bearer,
and is more easily captured than the
sperm-whale, which has nun arous for
midable teeth of ivory in the lower jaw,
but is without whalebone or baleen in
either. Three other marked character
istics distinguish these monsters of the
deep. The right-whale has no fin 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 differently, one throws up two
jets and the other only one. The nos
trils in the one are divided-like those
of man-whereas in the other it is
single blow-hole; thus the fishermen
know as soon as they see the jet if it be
a sperm or right-whale. In the head
of the sperm whale is found that valu-
able substance known as spermaceti, of
which our fine candles are made; and
strange to say, it is from the diseased
stomach or entrails of this species of
whale ambergris is obtained, which is
used in fine chemical perfumes, and it
is exceedingly valuable. A full grown
right-whale" attains the length of
from sixty-ive to eighty feet, the baleen
or whalebone of the largest individuals
being sometimes ten or twelve feet long,
nearly one foot wide and about one-half
inch thick. Old whalemen say the
number of plates of baleen in the mouth
of the right-whale is exactly 365, one
for every day in the year; but this is a
fabulous story-a myth. The Charles
ton specimen has 372 plates of baleen
or whalebone in it's mouth, as well as
could count them-perhaps there are a
few more. Another story is that the
vertebral column of backbone numbers
exactly tifty-two pieces, corresponding
to the number of weeks in the year, but
of this know nothing positively.
The infant whale is called calf, but
when the longest plate of baleen at
tains the length of three feet, the young
whale is called staunt." The full
grown female is nanny and the