Daily Kennebec journal., 1901-07-17
WORLDS LARGEST caEAr,,eE
NJ Living Thing Surpasses Inc Greenland
"nale IN Size.

gave the Information that whales were
invading the Lynn canal. and not long
since procession of them thre. miles
long was seen. This Will be regarded
by some as difficult to believe: but
"hether IL Is true or not, the whale
oea's the Worlu Tor size. 1t is an un-
questionable Iact that no creature
hhoWh 10 science ever existed which
was larger than the largest whale.
whales vary in length from four feet
to S5 feet: but their dimensions have
been grossly exaggerated by modern
writer's as well as by the ancients. for
Whom there was more excuse Pliny
hcld that IN the Indian sea the fish
called balocna. or whirlpool, is so long
ana broad as to take up more length
and breadth than two acres of
ground" Nine hundred feet is another
measurement given by the same
natural historian. But the size of
whales by no means decreased with
the advance of the centuries. CLANS
Magnus allowed 800 feet in length to
certain "hirsute" whales: but when
the latter authority comes down to
uennltc and recorded fact, he is more
careful with such measurements. In a
section of his well known work. CLANS
Magnus figures Il .monstrosus piscis ="
stranded on the northern shores of
England in 1882. which was naturally
regarded as a portent. This animal.
or another seen by the archbishop on
the Norwegian shore. was 80 feet in
length, measurement which may
conceivably have been accurate. since
II seems to have been baloenaptera
which is known to reach S5 feet in
length
The whale is. to many people. an in
genious paradox, by reason of the fact
that 1t lives in the water and yet is not
fish. At no more remote a date than
1888. thought Prof. Huxley. this ques-
ton of the fishlike nature of whales
was not settled for many persons
Such persons, however. had on their
side the naturalists of the 10th and
even the 18th centuries. who classified
whales with fish. Johnson's dictionary
defined a fish as an animal inhabting
the water; hence a whale, undoubted-
ly coming under the definition. would
be classified by the author of that die
tionary as a fish. To the naturalist the
remarkable adaptation 10 its mode of
life with the resultant fishlike form Is
no less interesting. But no competent
zoologist has any longer any doubt of
the mammalian character of the
cetacea.
Why is a whale not a fish?
For the sake of those who are not
rersed in the facts of comparative an
a TO ha To -fa h,.;a Iy
a few main reasons for placing the
whale among the rnammalia. and not
only not among the fish. but also in
position remote from all other groups
of vertebrated anmals-that is. the
amrhibia. reptiles and birds. A whale
is a hot-blooded creature. breathing by
means of lungs. which lie in the in
terror Of the body in a definite chest
cavity shut off from the rest of the
cavity of the body Uhat which con-
tainS the intestincs, liver. ctc) by a
largely muscular partition the dia-
phr1gm. Ii has frequently vestiges
Of the hairs which cover the bodies OF
other mammals in the presence of a
few scattered hairs in the nciChbor-
hood of the mouth. II brings forth its
young alive. and sucklcs them with
milk. The bones Of the skull are pre-
cisely those of other mammals, and
only differ slightly in their relative ar
rangcmcnt. No creature which has
these characteristics is anything but
mammal fishcs-a few of them
may have what are believed to be the
representatives. Of lungs. and with
which. indeed. they actually breathe:
but they have also Eiils. and the vast
bulk have no breathing organs except
these gilIs Lungs are found higher in
tn" series. but no diaphragm like that
of whales until we get to mammals.
The 'flukes'' of the whale. which
form its tail. are set at right angles to
the plane of the body. and not verti-
cally as in fishes. 1t has been noticed
by some that the two halves of the tail
fin have surfaces which are not pre-
ciscly parallel to each other. They
have, in fact. a screwlike form-one
half being convex upward the other
concaNe; and the use of the fiukeS
seems to imply such a conformation.
capt. Scoreshy observes of the Green
land whale that it is by means of the
tail principally that the whale ad
vances through the water The great
est velocity is produced by powerful
strokes against the water. impressed
alternately upward and downward;
but slower notion it is believed. is
produced by cutting the water later
ally and obliquely downward, in a
similar manner as a boat is forced
along with single oar in the operation
OF sculling. 1t is the latter motion of
course, that would be brought about
by the slightly screwlike form of the
tail fin. The tail, however. is also
used in balancing, as whale when
dead falls over on it's side. 1t is also
serviceable as a weapon of offcnse for
striking boats.
The blow hole or the blow .loles
twhere there are two separate orificesl
of the whale are. of course. its nostrils.
They are situated on the top of the
head as rule some way behind the
front of the head. except in the sperm
whale. This is in accordance with the
aquatic life We see in such diverse
types as the crocodile and the hippo
potamus ana logouS arrangements OF
he nostriis. which allow of the animal
coming to the surface to breathe. and
at the same time exposing the mini
mum of it's person to possible enemies
The blowing or spouting of a whale is
the act of expiration: ii takes place as
tho whale reaches the surface, u ~ I