River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1894-02-08
THE SPERM WHALE.
History of a Warm Blood, Air-Breathing
Animal of the Sea.

Australia is set in the midst of a
ural. therefore, that Sydney should
have the best collection of whales in
the world, and. when the government
has time TO attend to educational de-
tails, the scholars of earth will stand
amazed at the cetacean wealth.
The whale is not fish at all 1t is
a warm blooded, air breathing. simple,
affectionate animal. 1t has descended
from family which, ''once upon a
time" had four legs. and lived upon
the land. The law of nature is that if
any organ is not used it becomes afro
phied, useless. and finally disappears
If a man uses his tongue too much. and
neglects his brain, the latter viii be-
come gtrophied. We can see that law
working to-day in New South Wales.
The whale family found that life was
too hard on shore, so the members took
to the sea. A tail was of more service
there than hind legs, SO the hind legs
gradually went out of fashion, and the
tail developed enormously. Then the
forepaws were gradually modified into
a monster fin.
The first time | noticed anything
peculiar about whale was off the
coast of Peru, a good many years ago
We had harpooned large sperm whale
that had calf with her and the whole
desire of the mother whale appeared to
be to save her babe, which was about
twelve feet or fifteen feet long. When
the mother rose to the surface, gasping
for air, she tried to'Set the baby on to
her great fin and carry her away from
the cruel hunters. but the rope attached
to the harpoon kept her back She
had to give way to the merciless power
of her pursuers, and her frantic efforts
on behalf of her babe only FASTENED
her own doom. After she had covered
the sea with blood and foam, and lay,
''fin up in death, the little one came
alongside of the dead mother and rub
bed its nose against the smooth, black
skin, and whistled pitifully to the one
| that would answer nevermore. When
we had planted our flag on the dead
mothers body, and cut loose from our
harpoon, it became necessary to kill
the little one. A protest arose from
all the crew, for we were human be-
ingS, with hearts as tender as other
people, and we were touched at the
sight of the baby whales grief; but
we had to submit to see it harpooned
for its own sake. St had lost the
school" of whales now. to which its
mother belonged, and it would be
starved to death on the trackless sea,
or it would fall an easy victim to the
sword-tish, threshers, sharks or other
pirates of the sea.
One of the curious facts in the his
tory of the whale came to light one
day in the Pacific ocean, good deal
nearer to Sydney than my first discov-
cry.
We were cutting in" large whale,
and came across an unborn calf, lit
tie silken-sl1inned, beautiful fetus. In
its upper jaw there We're signs of
teeth, as though it belonged to prop
erly toothed family In the adult
whale there are teeth in the lower jaw
only. and there are holes in the upper
jaw into which they fit. Before birth
the family characteristics appear, but
after birth the babe looks like the rest
of the existing whale family.
The whales are still carnivorous, and
live on the animal life of the sea, on
squid. and fish, and small crustacea,
and the present dental arrangements
are much more suitable for that food
than the earlier land born teeth could
possibly have been. COW has nc
teeth in front on the upper jaw, but
fetal calf often has, and the whale has
altered its arrangements just as the
COW has done -Synpay Mail