Part 11

Of the Physeteridæ, four genera are represented in the British fauna by four or five species; namely, one Physeter, the Sperm Whale; two Hyperoodon, the common Beaked Whale, and a doubtful species called the Broad-fronted Beaked Whale; one Ziphius, Cuvier’s Whale; and one Mesoplodon, Sowerby’s Whale.

SPERM WHALE, OR CACHELOT.

By far the most conspicuous species of this interesting group is the SPERM WHALE, Physeter macrocephalus (Linnæus), which rivals the Right-Whale in commercial importance, and in the value of its products. This species has a very wide geographical range, having been found in almost every sea between lat. 60° north and 60° south. The attempt has been made, I think unsuccessfully, to show that the Sperm Whale of the Southern Hemisphere is distinct from that of the northern; there seems, however, no reason, at present, to doubt, although, of course, it may eventually be found otherwise, that the same species of Sperm Whale ranges over the whole of this vast tract of ocean. North of about 40° it appears to be only a straggler, and although the Arctic seas are almost always stated by authors to be its head-quarters, very few well-authenticated instances of its occurrence farther north than Scotland are on record; Lilljeborg excludes it from his account of the Scandinavian Cetacea, but Herr Collett says that within the last 100 years, at least two individuals of this species have been stranded on the Norwegian coast, and that Professor Sars, during a stay in Loffoden, received information which convinced him that one was seen there in the summer of 1865.

From the middle of the sixteenth to the middle of the seventeenth century, the stranding of individuals of this species on the coast of Great Britain, and, indeed, of other countries in Europe from the Netherlands to the Mediterranean, was by no means a rare occurrence; these were generally solitary males, but occasionally small “schools” were met with, as in July, 1577, in the Scheldt, where three were taken; also, at Hunstanton, in Norfolk, in 1646, mentioned below.

Of its occurrence on the British coast there are numerous instances; in all cases, however, they are believed by Andrew Murray to have been stragglers, “which have rounded Cape Horn (they have never been known to double the Cape of Good Hope) or unpromising colonies, for they are becoming scarcer and scarcer in more than their due proportion.” Eight or ten individuals of this species have occurred on the coast of Scotland between the years 1689 and 1871 (Alston, ‘Fauna of Scot.’, p. 18).

In the church of St. Nicholas, at Great Yarmouth, is the basal portion of a skull of this animal, which has been converted into a chair: it formerly stood outside the church, and of course, as it was an object of wonder, it was relegated to the powers of darkness, and christened (?) the “Devil’s Seat;” it has, however, now been admitted into mother church, and stands beside the north-west door under the clock. In the churchwardens’ accounts for 1606 there is a charge of 8s. for painting this chair, which clearly proves its antiquity. In a letter to Sir Thomas Browne (Wilkins’ edit., 1852, editor’s preface to “Pseudodoxia,” vol. i. p. lxxxi.), Sir Hamon L’Estrange writes that in June, 1626, a Whale, afterwards referred to by Sir T. Browne as a Sperm Whale (vol. iii. p. 324), was cast upon his shore or sea-liberty, “some-tyme parcel of the possessions of the Abbey of Ramsey, &c.” The same author, in his account of the “Fishes found in Norfolk and on the Coast,” says, “A Spermaceti Whale of 62 feet long [came on shore] near Wells, another of the same kind twenty years before at Hunstanton [the one referred to by Sir H. L’Estrange]; and not far off, eight or nine came ashore, and two had young ones after they were forsaken by the water.” The Whale mentioned by Sir H. L’Estrange came on shore in 1626; twenty years after would give 1646 as the date of the Wells specimen; and in December of that year, according to Booth’s “History of Norfolk,” published in 1781 (vol. ix. p. 33), “A great Whale was cast on the shore here [at Holme-next-the-Sea], the wind blowing strongly at the north-west, 57 feet long, the breadth of the nose-end eight feet, from nose-end to the eye 15½ feet; the eyes about the same bigness as those of an ox, the lower chap closed and shut about four feet short of the upper; this lower chap narrow towards the end, and therein were 46 teeth like the tusks of an elephant; the upper one had no teeth, but sockets of bones to receive the teeth: two small fins only, one on each side, and a short small fin on the back; it was a male ...; the breadth of the tail, from one outward tip to the other, was 13½ feet. The profit made of it was £217 6s. 7d., and the charge in cutting it up and managing it came to £100 or more.” It seems probable that a “school” got bewildered in the shallow waters of the Wash, and that the individual of which Booth gives such an excellent description, formed one of the same party as the eight or nine mentioned by Sir T. Browne. In May, 1652, Mr. Arthur Bacon writes to Sir T. Browne about the Sperm Whale cast on shore at Yarmouth, but the actual date of the occurrence is not given. Since these ancient records, many others have occurred at intervals, singly or in small parties, on various parts of the coast; the last instance, I believe, being in July, 1871, when one was stranded on the shore of the Isle of Skye.

s, Spermaceti Cavity; n, Nasal Passage, in dotted line; b, Blow-hole.]

Of the osteology of the Sperm Whale, Professor Flower has given an exhaustive description in a paper published in the ‘Transactions’ of the Zoological Society, vol. vi., and of its habits a very interesting account is given by Thomas Beale, who, in the capacity of surgeon on board ships employed in the South Sea fishery, had unusual opportunities of observing this remarkable animal. He published a book entitled ‘The Natural History of the Sperm Whale,’ to which I am largely indebted for what I shall have to say about this species.

The colour of the Sperm Whale is black above and grey beneath, the colours gradually shading into each other. The full-grown male is about sixty feet long; the females are much smaller and more slender than the males. The head, which constitutes more than one-third of the whole of the animal, presents a very remarkable appearance, the truncated form of the snout looking as though it were cut off at right angles to the body: at the upper angle is situated the single blow-hole. The juncture of the head with the body is the thickest portion, and the body decreases little in size till the “hump,” which is situated in the place of the dorsal fin, is reached; from this point it rapidly diminishes to the tail. The flukes of the tail are from twelve to fourteen feet in breadth, and the two flippers each about six feet long. The under jaw is pointed, and about two feet shorter than the upper; it is furnished with about twenty-five large conical teeth on each side; but the number is not constant, nor is it always the same on each side. In the upper jaw are no visible teeth, but those of the lower jaw shut into corresponding depressions in the upper. The tongue is small, and, like the lining of the mouth, of a white colour. The upper part of the head, called the “case,” contains the “spermaceti,” which upon the death of the animal granulates into a yellowish substance. Beale says that a large Whale not unfrequently contains a ton of spermaceti. Beneath the “case” is situated the “junk,” which consists of a dense cellular mass, containing oil and spermaceti. The blubber is about fourteen inches thick on the breast, and in most other parts of the body from eight to eleven inches. By the whalers this covering is called the “blanket.” With regard to the apparently ungainly head of the Sperm Whale, Beale remarks as follows:--“One of the peculiarities of the Sperm Whale, which strikes at first sight every beholder, is the apparently disproportionate and unwieldy bulk of the head; but this peculiarity, instead of being, as might be supposed, an impediment to the freedom of the animal’s motion in its native element, is, in fact, on the contrary, in some respects, very conducive to its lightness and agility, if such a term can with propriety be applied to such an enormous creature; for a great part of the bulk of the head is made up of a thin membranous case, containing, during life, a thin oil, of much less specific gravity than water, below which is again the junk, which, although heavier than the spermaceti, is still lighter than the element in which the Whale moves; consequently, 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 fish would only be necessary to raise the whole of the anterior flat surface of the nose out of the water. In case the animal should wish to increase his speed to the utmost, the narrow inferior surface, which has been before stated to bear some resemblance to the cutwater of a ship, and which would, in fact, answer the same purpose to the Whale, would be the only part exposed to the pressure of the water in front, enabling him thus to pass with the greatest celerity and ease through the boundless track of his wide domain. When swimming at ease, the Sperm Whale keeps just below the surface of the water, and goes at about three or four miles an hour; but on an emergency it is able to attain a speed of ten or twelve miles an hour: it then progresses by means of powerful lateral strokes of its tail, and alternately rises and sinks at each stroke. In progressing in this manner, the blunt anterior surface of the head never presents itself directly to the water; the animal’s body being in an oblique position, it is only the angle formed by the inferior surface which first presents itself, and this, which Beale likens to the “cutwater” of a ship, offers the least possible amount of resistance.

When undisturbed, the Sperm Whale rises to the surface to breathe about once every hour. Beale says the regularity with which every action connected with its breathing is performed is remarkable; the time occupied differs slightly in each individual, but each one is minutely regular in the performance of every action connected with respiration, so that the whalers know how long it will remain beneath the surface before reappearing to renew its supply of air. A full-grown “bull,” he says, remains at the surface ten or eleven minutes, during which he makes sixty or seventy expirations; after which he disappears, to return again to the surface in one hour and ten minutes. The blowing is not accompanied by any sound, and notwithstanding the wonderful accounts of its roarings and bellowings, the Sperm Whale may be said to be an absolutely silent animal. The females and young males are gregarious, but are found in separate herds or “schools,” as they are called. A “school” will sometimes consist of five or six hundred individuals. The herds of females are always accompanied by from one to three large “bulls;” but the full-grown males are said to be generally solitary in their habits, except on certain occasions, when it is supposed they are migrating from one feeding-place to another. The majority of those which occur on our coast are these solitary males; when they visit us in herds, as mentioned by Sir Thomas Browne, they are all probably females or young males. The “bulls” are very fierce and jealous, and fight fiercely. The females show great attachment to each other and to their young, so much so that, one being wounded, the others of the herd remain and fall a comparatively easy prey. The young males, on the other hand, are very wary and difficult of approach, and should one be attacked, the others immediately take the alarm and retreat. The female produces one young one, rarely two, at a time, and breeds at all seasons of the year. Their senses of sight and hearing are very acute, and after being once unsuccessfully attacked, they are very difficult and dangerous to approach.

The food of the Sperm Whale consists almost entirely of Cephalopode Mollusks (cuttlefish), although at times, when feeding near the shore, it has been known to take fish as large as salmon. How it contrives to capture such active prey as fish seems difficult to conceive. Beale is of opinion that the Whale sinks to a proper depth in the sea, where remaining as quiet as possible, and opening wide its mouth, the prey are attracted by the glistening white colour of its lining membrane, curiosity leading them to destruction; for no sooner have a sufficient number entered his mouth than the Whale rapidly closes his under jaw, and they are made prisoners, and swallowed.

The pursuit of the Sperm Whale is attended with much greater danger than that of the Greenland Whale, and Beale gives many instances in which, in his own experience, boats were stove in and men lost; stories of fighting Whales, he says, are numerous, and probably much exaggerated; one, known as “Timor Jack,” is said to have destroyed every boat sent against him, till at last he was killed by approaching him from several directions at the same time, his attention thus being diverted from the boat which made the successful attack. Another fish, known as “New Zealand Tom,” destroyed nine boats successively before breakfast, and when eventually captured, after destroying many other boats, many harpoons from the various ships which had attacked him were found sticking in his body. There is one well-authenticated instance of a vessel being attacked and destroyed by a Sperm Whale: the American whale-ship Essex was attacked by one, which, first passing under the vessel, probably by accident, came in contact with her keel and carried it away: then turning and rushing furiously upon the ship, the Whale stove in her bow; so serious was the breach that the vessel speedily filled and went down. Most of the crew were away in their boats at the time, but those on board had just time to launch their one remaining boat before the vessel sank. The boats made for the coast of Peru, the nearest land, many hundreds of miles distant; one of them was picked up drifting at sea, and three of the crew, who were found in it in a state of insensibility, were the only survivors of the ill-fated vessel.

In addition to the sperm and oil, this species yields another product which is, or was, very valuable, although it is the result of disease, and one would imagine a very uninviting substance--I refer to Ambergris, the origin and composition of which was so long a puzzle to the learned. This substance is now well known to be a concretion of the indigestible portions of the Cuttlefish, which form the food of the Sperm Whale. The nucleus of the mass is generally the horny beaks of these creatures, and the substance itself is found in the intestines of the Sperm Whale, or on the shores of the seas frequented by this species: no other Whale is known to be subject to these bezoars. It was formerly believed that the origin of ambergris was in some way connected with the sea, and when it was afterwards found in Whales, the fact was simply attributed to their having swallowed it. Sir Thomas Browne writes of the Sperm Whale which came on shore at Wells, in 1646:--“In vain was it to rake for ambergriese in the paunch of this leviathan, as Greenland discoverers and attests of experience dictate that they sometimes swallow great lumps thereof in the sea; insufferable fœtor denying that inquiry; and yet if, as Paracelsus encourageth, ordure makes the best musk, and from the most fœtid substances may be drawn the most odoriferous essences; all that had not Vespasian’s nose (Cui odor lucri ex re qualibet) might boldly swear here was a subject fit for such extractions” (vol. i., p. 356). It was not until 1783, in a paper read before the Royal Society by Dr. Swediaur, that a scientific account of the origin of ambergris was made known. At the present time its medical virtues, which were formerly considered very great, are altogether at a discount, and the only use to which it is applied is in the preparation of perfumery.

The South Sea whale-fishery was long prosecuted by the Americans before the British ships took part in it, from 1771 to 1775 Massachusetts is said by McCulloch to have had 121 vessels in this trade; about the beginning of the American war, however, the English also sent out ships, and in 1791 had 75 vessels engaged in the South Seas. The number of British ships, as with those employed in the northern fisheries, varied considerably, influenced probably by the varying amounts of bounty offered by the Government, but never exceeded 75; in 1815 they had fallen off to 22; in 1820 they again rose to 68, from which they gradually fell to 31 in 1829, all of which sailed from the port of London. Beale sailed from London, in 1831, in the “Kent,” returning in the “Sarah and Elizabeth,” both of which vessels belonged to Thomas Sturge. The duration of the voyage was from two to four or even five years, the average of 199 voyages being three years and three months, and the yield of oil, 169 tons per voyage. At the present time no British vessels are engaged in the South Sea trade, which has again reverted to the Americans.

I have said very little about the method of pursuit and capture of this species, and of the Right-Whale, because it is a subject in which I take no pleasure; those who wish to know how these peaceful and highly-organised giants are approached, and how they behave when terrified and smarting under the harpoon and whale-lance, can pursue the subject ad nauseam in the pages of Scoresby, Beale, and others; the sickening process of “flensing” and disposing of the blubber is described with equal minuteness. The halo of romance with which some authors seek to surround the whale-fishery, is, doubtless, in a great measure due to the solitary and distant fields of operation, whether it be in the frozen regions of the north, or the vast and trackless oceans of the south, but its stern reality is prosaic enough. The occupation is one of hardship and danger, but the remuneration when successful is large in proportion, and I can hardly conceive, under any circumstances, of men inflicting the fearful amount of suffering which every “full” whale-ship, or in a still greater degree every “full” sealer, represents. Science is constantly adding to our resources, and it is sincerely to be hoped that ere long substitutes may be found for animal oil and whalebone which will supersede their use in the few processes in which they are still requisite: should this be long delayed, it is to be feared that the Seals and Whales, at least of the northern seas, will soon cease to exist. In the meantime, it is gratifying to find that it is from the sealers and whalers themselves that the demand for the better regulation of the trade has emanated, and the name of Captain David Gray, of Peterhead, stands prominent amongst those who have urged upon the governments of this and other countries concerned, such regulations as shall insure greater humanity in its prosecution, and prevent the wasteful destruction which, if continued, must speedily ruin a valuable source of commercial enterprise.

Although so widely spread over the waters of the globe, possessing, I believe, a range greater than any other known mammal, it is only open and deep waters which can be said to be the home of the Sperm Whale; when found in shallow seas, its generally emaciated condition indicates the absence of its proper nourishment; and the readiness with which whole herds precipitate themselves stupidly upon the sands, shows how little they are acquainted with such objects. Mr. Andrew Murray makes some observations upon this subject, which are so interesting and so suggestive that I cannot resist making a long quotation.

Speaking of those specimens which have now and then been cast ashore in the North Atlantic or in the English seas, he says: “They seem to be unprepared for, or not adapted for, shallow seas. Accustomed (perhaps not individually, but by hereditary practice or instinct) to swim along the coral islands of the Pacific within a stone’s throw from the shore, they cannot understand, their instinct is not prepared to meet, shallow coasts and projecting headlands. If they were habitual residents in our seas, they must either be speedily extirpated, learn more caution, or be developed into a new species.” ... Mr. Murray further says: “I observe that almost every place that has been above mentioned as a favourite resort of the Sperm Whales, although not out of soundings, has claims to be considered the site of submerged land. The islands in the Polynesia, which are its special feeding-ground, are the beacons left by the submerged Pacific continent. In pure deep seas animal life is usually scarce, and the absence of breeding-ground is probably the chief cause of it; but this only applies to a certain kind of animals, those which require a bottom on which to deposit their spawn; but there are many which do not require this. The spawn of some floats about unattached; for others a frond of weed is sufficient attachment; and it has occurred to me that the distribution of the Sperm Whale may in some way be connected with the geological antecedents of the ocean it inhabits. I think it not improbable that the site of a submerged land may swarm with life, which originally proceeded, or was dependent on it, long after it had been in the deep bosom of the ocean buried. The Sargasso seas, which swarm with Eolidæ and Crustacea, are examples of this life; it is not invariably either present or absent in deep water, and it is its presence or its absence which is instructive. Those animals which required a bottom to spawn upon may have died out or been developed into others which do not; and those which do not require such a support may have multiplied correspondingly. In one of the maps in Lieutenant Maury’s book, already cited, there is a space of sea opposite the western coast of South America, and lying between Patagonia and New Zealand, marked ‘Desolate region, distinguished by the absence of animal or vegetable life’;--no Sperm Whales here--nothing for them to feed upon--and no symptoms, either by banks of Sargasso or coral islets, of any land ever having existed there. There is no apparent reason why this place, except from some special cause peculiar to itself, should be more desolate than any other in the same latitude--than the deep sea on the east side of Patagonia, for example. I can imagine that, if the bottom of the sea should subside gradually, where animal life had once abounded, animal life--not that animal life, but animal life due in some way to it--might continue to linger over it long after it had passed beyond the depth at which it could practically have any effect upon the animal life above it; but if a part of the circumference of the globe has always been under water, before and ever since the creation of life, no life is likely to be found on that spot, because it has never had a starting-point of life from which to begin; and, as already said, a slender barrier stops the spread of species, and species would certainly not spread to a spot where there was nothing for them to feed upon. Again, animal life could not begin to feed upon animal life till vegetable life had previously prepared the way, by providing food for the animals which were to furnish food for others; and vegetable life could not begin to grow without a foundation of land, accessible either above or below water. The total and constant absence of all life at any particular spot appears to me, therefore, to furnish a presumption that there has never been dry land or shallow water there. Whether the continuance of deep water in one spot for some interminably long time might not have the same effect is another question, which, whatever way it may be answered, would not affect my explanation of the cause of the absence of the Sperm Whale from such spots.”

The woodcuts (figs. 17 and 18), representing the chair in Yarmouth Church, which is formed of part of the skull of an individual of this species, are from the ‘Purlestrations of Great Yarmouth,’ by Mr. C. J. Palmer.

THE ZIPHIOID WHALES.

The sub-family Ziphiinæ, which follows next, is, perhaps, the most remarkable of the whole of this interesting order. The Ziphioid Whales, as they are designated, are, for the most part, very rare, and until the commencement of the present century, with one exception, were known to science only from their numerous remains, found chiefly in the Crag deposits. Even so recently as 1871, Professor Flower, in a memoir of this group speaks of their occurrence at irregular intervals, and at various and most distant parts of the world, to the number of about 30 individuals, in all cases solitary, and that their habits were almost absolutely unknown. Since that time, however, very considerable additions have been made to our knowledge of the group, and Professor Flower, in a second contribution on the same subject made in 1877, states that “instead of being so rare as was then supposed, since the attention of naturalists resident in our colonies has been directed to the importance of losing no opportunity of securing such specimens as accidents of wind and waves may cast upon their shores, it has been proved that in the seas of the Southern Hemisphere these Whales exist in considerable numbers, both as species and as individuals, and that one species, at least [Mesoplodon grayi] is gregarious, having been met with in two instances in ‘schools’ of considerable numbers.” “The geographical distribution of the group,” adds Professor Flower “has a very great interest in relation to that of many other Australian groups, both of vertebrates and invertebrates. Among the earliest known remains of Cetacea, in the Belgian and Suffolk Crags, Mesoplodon and closely-allied forms are most abundant. Up to a little more than ten years ago, the few stray individuals of Mesoplodon bidens occasionally stranded on the shores of North Europe, were supposed to be their sole survivors. Since that time it has been proved that they are still numerous in species, and even in individuals ... in the seas which surround the Australian continent, extending from the Cape of Good Hope on the one side, to New Zealand on the other, though beyond these limits no specimens have yet been met with. It is the history of the Marsupial Mammals, of Ceratodus, of Terebratula, and of numerous other forms.”

The group is divided into four genera--Hyperoodon, Berardius, Ziphius, and Mesoplodon (the second of which is not represented in our Fauna). Its members were formerly distinguished by the absence of functional teeth in the upper jaw, but, recently, a row of small teeth, of determinate number and definite form, has been discovered in many individuals of a species of Mesoplodon. The teeth in the lower jaw are always quite rudimentary, with the exception of one, or occasionally, two pairs. These may be largely developed, especially in the male sex, and are placed, generally, well forward. “They have a small and pointed enamel-covered crown, composed of true dentine, which, instead of surmounting a root of the ordinary character, is raised upon a solid mass of osteo-dentine, the continuous growth of which greatly alters the form and general appearance of the organ as age advances.” In Mesoplodon layardi this little dentine cap is not larger than the portion of the tooth ordinarily shown above the gum, but the fang-like growth is so great that the tips of the “tusks” meet over the upper jaw, so that the animal is only able to open its mouth for a very short distance indeed. The form assumed in Mesoplodon bidens will be seen in the figure of the head of that species, at p. 104. The blow-hole is sub-crescentic, and a pair of remarkable furrows occurs in the skin of the throat, almost in the form of the letter V, the point directed forward. The skull presents a remarkable appearance in the genus Hyperoodon, caused by the enormous maxillary crests which produce the peculiar conformation of the head in the living animal, originating the trivial name “Bottle-head.” The food of the whole group is said to consist mainly of Loligo, commonly called “Squid,” and other Cephalopods which frequent the open sea.

One very singular circumstance with regard to these creatures is that they never seem to be taken at sea, but, whenever procured, it is by their running themselves on shore. This, as before remarked with regard to the Sperm Whale, would seem to indicate that their natural habitat is the deep waters of the open seas, where shallows are unknown. The sand-banks which surround a sloping shore, of which they have had no experience, speedily prove fatal to them.

BEAKED WHALE.

The common BEAKED WHALE, or BOTTLE-HEAD (Hyperoodon rostratum, Chemnitz; Hyperoodon butzkopf, Lacépède), is of frequent occurrence in the North Atlantic, and generally visits our shores in autumn, sometimes ascending the estuaries of rivers: it has been taken several times at the entrance to the river Ouse. It is solitary in its habits, more than two being never met with in the same place, and in that case it is often the old female and her young one: the old male is said to be very shy and rarely secured. In September, 1877, an adult female, 24 ft. long, was taken in the Menai Straits; it was accompanied by another, probably its young one. Capt. Feilden met with what he believes to have been this species, just within the Arctic Circle; “each emission of breath was accompanied by a stentorian grunt, which closely resembled that of an elephant.”

The colour is black above, the under parts being lighter: the two teeth in the lower jaw are generally hidden in the gum. Its food consists of cuttlefish, the remains of great numbers of which have been found in its stomach.

BROAD-FRONTED BEAKED WHALE.

Another species of Hyperoodon, for which the name H. latifrons has been proposed, is by some supposed to exist. Scarcely anything is known about it as a species. “The principal distinctive characters of the skull lie in the great raised crests of the maxillary bones, which are very much thickened and flattened above, so as almost to touch one another, whereas, in H. rostratum, they are rather sharp-edged above, and separated by a considerable interval. In H. latifrons, these crests rise absolutely higher than the occipital region of the skull, which is not the case in the common species.” Individuals possessing these peculiarities have been taken three or four times on the British coast, and on one occasion, in Greenland. Another was stranded in 1873, at Hasvig, near Hammerfest, and identified by Professor Sars from its remains; its length was 30 feet (Norse), and the colour dark on the back, but lighter beneath. It has, however, been suggested, with much probability, by Eschricht, that these individuals are, after all, only the males of the preceding species; for all the specimens with broad crests, of which the sex was noted, were males.

CUVIER’S WHALE.