OCR Text |
Show 1868.] OF THE GREENLAND SEAS. 541 could have reached the west coast by any other means; for, even allowing the greatest credible speed,' it comes scarcely within the limits of possibility that it could have doubled Cape Farewell and reached 70° N . latitude within the interval mentioned. The rate at which a Whale travels from place to place whilst feeding, or under other ordinary circumstances, may be stated as being about four miles an hour. Like most of the Cetacea, it generally travels in a course contrary to that of the wind. Its food consists, for the most part, of Entomostraca and Pteropoda, but chiefly of the former, and especially of Cetochilus arcticus, Baird, and Cetochilus septrionalis, H. Goodsir, Arpacticus kronii, Kroy., &c, which are chiefly found in those portions of the sea of the olive-green colour described by Scoresby. This appearance has been shown* to be produced by vast quantities of Diatomacece, chiefly Melosia arctica, on which the "Whales' food" subsists. It is not, I am of opinion, compatible with facts to suppose that the Right Whale's food is composed in any part of fishes proper, except, perhaps, a minute individual which may now and then accidentally find its way into its stomach with the mass of maidre (as the Whale's food is called). Many of the old whalers contend otherwise, and will adduce measurements of the diameter of the gullet in proof that much larger animals than Aca-lephae, Pteropoda, or Entomostraca could be received in the stomach. I have never measured the orifice of any oesophagus which exceeded 2| inches in diameter, though as these observations were generally made on young Whales, it is not improbable that this size may be exceeded in some individuals. Most of the slimy-looking substances found floating in the Arctic seas are generally masses of Diatomaceee combined with Protozoa, &c.; but in some cases it is the mucous lining of the bronchial passages which has been discharged when the animal was "blowing." This "blowing," so familiar a feature of the Cetacea, but especially of the Mysticete, is quite analogous to the breathing of the higher mammals, and the " blow-holes" are the perfect homologues of the nostrils. It is most erroneously stated that the Whale ejects water from the " blow-holes." I have been many times only a few feet from the Whale when " blowing," and, though purposely observing it, could never see that it ejected from its nostrils anything but the ordinary breath-a fact which might almost have been deduced from analogy. In the cold Arctic air this breath is generally condensed, and falls upon those close at hand in the form of a dense spray, which may have led seamen to suppose that this vapour was originally ejected in the form of water. Occasionally when the Whale blows just as it is rising out of or sinking in the sea, a little of the superincumbent water may be ejected upward by the column of breath. When the Whale is wounded in the lungs, or in any of the blood-vessels immediately supplying them, blood, as might be expected, is ejected in the death-throes * On the Nature of the Discoloration of the Arctic Seas (Seemann's Journal of Botany, February 18G8; Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, vol. ix.; Quart. Journ. Mic. Science, October 1868 ; Das Ausland, February 27th, 1808). |