Spermaceti is the solid con stituent of the crude oil of the sperm whale and some other cetaceans. The head of the sperm whale, between the skull and the integuments, is a kind of large reservoir of a semisolid °head-matter* rich in spermaceti, but the sub stance is also contained in the oil of other parts of the body an dorsal humps. To extract the spermaceti, the oil is boiled. chilled and after. ' ' to a very heavy pressure. The cruse orown spermaceti 13 refined by heating and bleaching with alkali. Spermaceti is a whitish, translucent substance, a little lighter than water, and soluble in chloro form, ether and carbon bisnlphid. It melts at about 125° F. Though an excellent substance for candles, it has been very largely supplanted for that purpose by paraffin and other low priced materials. The production in the United States in 1901 amounted to 400,000 pounds, valued at $100,000.
Whalebone.— Whalebone is the outgrowth of horny substance from the epidermis of the upper jaw in whales of the family Balanicht. It takes the form of triangular plates, which differ greatly in size, proportions and color in differ ent species. Plates to the number of 200 or 300 are attached by their bases transversely to the roof of the mouth on each side. They are long est in the middle of the series and at the ends become mere bundles of fibres. The plates are smooth and straight on the outer edge, but the inner edge is fringed with coarse bristles. The bristles of adjoining plates become matted to gether, forming a strainer by which the whale is enabled to retain in its mouth the fish or small crustaceans, etc., on which it feeds, while the
water is squeezed out through the plates by the action of the tongue. In the right whales, the humpback and the sulphurbottom, the whale hone is black or blackish; in the common fin back, striped gray and white; in the pollack whale, black with white bristles; and in the little piked whale, the California gray whale and the pygmy right whale of New Zealand, yellowish white. The most valuable whalebone commer cially is that of the right whales and especially that of the bowhead, which may have a length of from 10 to 12 or even 15 feet, and is very flexible. A single bowhead yields 2,000 pounds of whalebone, valued at from $5 to $7 a pound.
Whalebone from the humpback, sulphur bottom and finback is short, coarse and brittle, but also enters into commerce. Whalebone is used in the manufacture of corsets, in stiffen ing and adding gloss to certain kinds of cloth, for surgical instruments, whips, etc.
Bibliography.— For American whales con sult Goode, 'Fishery Industries' (10th Cen sus, Sec. 1, Washington 1884); Scammon, 'Ma rine Mammals' (San Francisco 1874); Bullen, 'Cruise of the Cachalot' (New York .1900). For cetaceans in general consult Beddard, 'Book of Whales' (London and New York 1900), which contains a copious list of references to other books. An exhaustive account of the whale fishery will be found in the 'Annual Re port of the United States Fish Commission for 1883,' by Temple Brown.