CACHOLOT, CACHALOT, SPERMACETI WHALE, or SPERM WHALE, Physeter macro cephalus or catodoa inacrocephalus, one of the largest of the cetacea (q.v.), very peculiar in form and appearance, much sought after not only on account of the oil, but still more on account of the spermaceti (q.v.) which it yields. Ambergris (q.v.) is also obtained from it. The C. belongs to the family of cetacea called physeteri&c, or eatodontida, of which some naturalists still think that there is only one well-ascertained species. There appears, however, to be pretty good reason for thinking that at least two species exist, both of which are occasional visitants of the British shores—the common C., having no dorsal fin, and the high-finned C. (physeter tursio) having a very high dorsal fin. The common C. has a very wide geographical range. It may almost be said to inhabit all seas, although it is most abundant in those of the southern hemisphere. It is not of frequent occurrence on the European shores, although it sometimes enters the Mediter ranean, and is occasionally stranded on the coasts of Britain. An individual, 54 ft. long and 30 in circumference, ran ashore on Cramond island, in the firth of Forth, in 1769, and was very particularly described in the Philosophical Transactions by Mr. Robertson of Edinburgh. Twelve were caught at Viralderwich, on the Suffolk coast, in 1788. The C. sometimes reaches the length of 70 or 80 feet. The head is enormously large, forming about one half of the entire bulk of the animal, and occupying more than one third of the entire length. From the head, the body tapers to the tail, and at last rather rapidly. The general color is very dark gray, nearly black on the upper parts, lighter beneath. Old males, or, in the language of the South Sea whalers, old bull-whales, usually have a large gray spot on the front of the head. The muzzle is very obtuse, almost as if suddenly cut off in front, the breadth of it almost equaling the thickness of the body. In a protuberance on the upper part of it, is the blow-hole, which is single, situated a little on the left side, and in form not unlike the letter S elon gated. The month is very large and wide; and the throat, unlike that of the Green land whale, is very wide, sufficiently so to admit the body of a man. The upper jaw projects some feet beyond the lower, and is destitute both of teeth and whalebone; the lower jaw has from 20 to 25 teeth on each side, according to the age of the animal. The teeth are conical and slightly recurved, projecting about 2 in. from the gum. The lower jaw is extremely narrow, the two branches being in contact throughout the greater part of its length: it fits into a groove in the upper, in which are cavities for the teeth. The eyes are small, and placed far back in the head, above the angles of the mouth; the left eye is said to be smaller than the right. Just above the eyes, the dorsal line rises considerably; the dorsal fin is also represented by a protuberance about half-way between the neck and the tail; and these parts are seen above water in the ordinary swimming of the animal, which is at the rate of from 3 to 7 m. an hour, and just under the surface of the water, although when alarmed it swims with greater velocity, strik lug the water upward and downward with its tail with great force. The pectoral fins
are small, and seem scarcely if at all to aid in progression, which is accomplished by the large and powerful tail-fin. The tail-fin is very broad, and is divided into two lobes, called by South Sea whalers the flukes.
The enormous head of the C. is in great part occupied by a cavity in front of and above the skull, called by whalers the case, which is a receptacle for spermaceti (q.v.). This substance being light, it is not wonderful that the animal in swimming raises its head above the surface of the water, which it also often does even when at rest, " like a black rock in the ocean." The case frequently holds as much as ten large barrels of spermaceti. It is not formed of bone, but of a strong tendinous integument, and is divided into compartments communicating with each other. The substance which it contains is in a semi-fluid state, but hardens on cooling: it consists of spermaceti and oil; the oil is separated by draining and squeezing, and the spermaceti further purified, till, instead of being a yellow unctuous mass, in which state it is brought home by the whalers, it assumes a beautiful pearly white, flaky, almost crystalline appearance. When the spermaceti whale is killed, and towed alongside the whaling-ship, the case is emptied of its valuable contents through a hole made in front of the muzzle, and by means of a bucket attached to a pole. The spermaceti was at one time imagined to be the brain of the whale; what purpose it serves in the animal economy, is not well known, except that already alluded to of giving buoyancy to the forepart of the huge body; and per haps this is its chief use, respiration even more than progression depending on it; but it is distinct enough from the brain, which is comparatively very small, and is indeed, as well as the skull which contains it, small in proportion to the whole bulk of the creature. Cavities filled with spermaceti are distributed over the body, and even ramify through the external fat or blubber, although the principal mass is in the head. The blubber of the C. is not nearly equal in thickness to that of the Greenland whale, being only about 14 in. thick on the breast of a large whale, and from 8 to 11 in. on other parts of the body. It is called by whalers the blanket, is removed from the body of the captured whale in great strips, and is heated in large pots, the skin of the whale serving for fuel, when the oil known as sperm oil (q.v.) flows from it. The junk, a thick elastic mass, which occupies the forepart of the head, immediately under the case, yields also a considerable quantity of sperm oil.
The C. feeds upon fishes and cephalopodous mollusks. Squids and cuttlefishes appear to be its chief food. It is gregarious in its habits, and the herds are called schools by whalers. Five hundred or more have been seen in a single herd. Large herds generally consist of females, with only a few males; herds of young males also occur ; when solitary individuals are met with, they are almost always old males. Ter rible conflicts often take place among the males, and it is not unusual to find the lower jaw deformed in consequence of having been dislocated or broken in them. See WEALE-FISIIERY.