Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1889 — WHALES. [ARTICLE]

WHALES.

They are Inoffensive anti Affectionate by Nature—Their Habits. A sight of these huge, inoffensive animals is often to be had during an Atlantic voyage. They are too timid to approach near the steamer. A peculiarity about these wonderful creatures is the tail., which is not verticle, as in most fishes, but level, by which they are able to reach the surface of the water with greater facility for the purpose of respiatlon; and such is the strength that even the largest whales are able with its assistance to i force themselves entirely out of the ; water. Their till is their oaly weapon of protection. With one stroke of it they will send a large boat with its crew in the air and shatter the wood • into a thousand pieces. Sometimes the : animal will take a perpendicular posij tion in the water, with the head down- , wards and rearing the tail on high beat , the waves with fearful violence. Ou these occasions the se i foams for a wide space around. This performance is called by the sailors “lob tailing.” A whale’s head is about one-third of its body, and its tongue is a soft, thick mass which was formerly considered a great delicacy of the table, and a right of royalty. Their blood is red and wfirm like a man’s, and the female suckle their young. A whale has no external ear. Their sense of hearing is imperfect. When the skin is removed a small opening is perceived for the admission of sound. By a quick i perception of all movements made on the water it discovers danger at a great distance. The eyes are small, but the sense of seeing is acute. A whale does not attain full growth under 25 years, and is said to reach a very great age. They live in families rather than herds and are of a kindly nature,. w ith the instinct of family affection very strongly developed. Whiles have no teeth, instead of whicii whalebones grow down out of their upper jaw.—Ocean.