Mr. Beale gives the following as the dimensions of a Sperm-Whale of the largest size, or about 84 feet in length :•---Depth of head from 8 to 9 feet ; breadth from 5 to 6 feet ; depth of body seldom exceed ing 12 or 14 feet; circumference seldom exceeding 36 feet ; swimming paws about 6 feet long and 3 feet broad.
The skin is smooth, but occasionally in old whales wrinkled. The general colour is 'very dark, deepest on the upper part of the head, back, and flukes, in which situation it is sometimes black ; on the sides it gradually assumes a lighter tint, and on the breast becomes silvery-gray. In different individuals there is however every variety of shade, and some are piebald. Old bulls' have generally a portion of gray on the nose, immediately above the fore-part of the upper jaw, when they are said to be 'gray-headed.' The black skin' in young whales is about three-eighths of an inch thick ; in old ones it is not more than one-eighth. Immediately beneath the black skin is the blubber or fat, termed the 'blanket,' of a light yellowish colour, producing when melted the sperm-oil.
The bulk of the head is, as we have seen, made up of a membranous 'case,' containing a thin oil of much less specific gravity than water ; below which again is the junk,' which, although heavier than the spermaceti, is still lighter than the element in which the whale moves ; consequently, observes Mr. Beale, the head taken as a whole is lighter specifically than any other part of the body, and will always have a tendency to rise at least so far above the surface as to elevate the nostril or blow-hole sufficiently for all purposes of respiration ; and more than this, a very slight effort on the part of the whale would only be necessary to raise the whole of the anterior flat surface of the nose out of the water. At very regular intervals of time the snout emerges, and from the extremity of the nose the spout is thrown up, and at a distance appears thick, low, bushy, and white. It is formed of the expired air forcibly ejected through the blow-hole, and acquires its white colour from minute particles of water previously lodged in the chink or fissure of the nostril, and also from the con densation of the aqueous vapour thrown off by the lungs. The spout, says Mr. Beale in continuation, is projected at an angle of 136 degrees, in a slow and continuous manner for about three minutes, and may be seen from the mast-bead in favourable weather at the distance of four or five miles. 'When the whale is alarmed, or gallied,' the spout is thrown much higher with great rapidity, and differs much from its usual appearance. Immediately after each spout the nose
sinks beneath the water, scarcely a second intervening for the act of inspiration, which must consequently be performed very quickly, the air rushing into the cheat with astonishing velocity ; there is however no sound caused by inspiration, and very little by expiration in this species : in short, nothing of that loud noise called the drawback' in the Finback and other whales. Ten seconds is occupied by a large bull sperm whale in making one inspiration and one expiration ; during six of these the nostril is beneath the water. At each breathing time the whale makes from 60 to 70 expirations, and remains there fore at the surface 10 or 11 minutes. When the breathing-time is over, or, as the whalers term it, ho has had his spoutings out,' the head sinks slowly, the small,' or the part between the bump ' and appears above the water, curved, with the convexity upwards ; the flukes are then lifted high into the air, the animal having assumed a straight position, descends perpendicularly to an unknown depth. This last act is called peaking the flukes,' and those who are on the look-out call loudly when they see it—' there goes flukes.' The continues thus hidden beneath the surface for one hour and ten ' minutes ; some will remain one hour and twenty minutes, and others only for one hour ; but these, Mr. Beale says, am rare exceptions. A seventh of the time of this whale is, Mr. Beale makes out, consumed in respiration.
Small fishes are occasionally swallowed in quantities by this whale, and one has been known to eject from its stomach a fish as large as a moderate-sized salmon ; but the principal food of the Sperm-Whale appears to consist of squids or cuttle-fishes. [SErtenx.] This species is gregarious ; and the herds called 'schools' are of two kinds, one consisting of females, the other of young males not fully grown. Mr. Beale has seen as many as 500 or 600 in one `school. With each female 'school' are from one to three large `bulls' or 'school-masters,' as they are termed by the whalers. The full-grown males almost always go alone in search of food : they are when alone very incautious and easily killed. It is the smaller, or 'forty-barrel bull,' as he is called, that makes the most desperate resist ance. A large whale will yield 80 barrels of oil, and sometimes 100.