of some kind. One kind
alone (_Orca_) eats other warm-blooded animals, as seals, and even
members of its own order, both large and small. Many feed on fish,
others on small floating crustaceans, pteropods and jelly-fishes, while
the principal staple of the food of many is constituted by cuttle-fishes
and squids. In size cetaceans vary much, some of the smaller dolphins
scarcely exceeding 4 ft. in length, while whales are the most colossal
of all animals. It is true that many statements of their bulk are
exaggerated, but the actual dimensions of the larger species exceed
those of all other animals, not even excluding the extinct dinosaurian
reptiles. With some exceptions, cetaceans are generally timid,
inoffensive animals, active in their movements and affectionate in their
disposition towards one another, especially the mother towards the
young, of which there is usually but one, or at most two at a time. They
are generally gregarious, swimming in herds or "schools," sometimes
amounting to many thousands in number; though some species are met with
either singly or in pairs.

Commercially these animals are of importance on account of the oil
yielded by the blubber of all of them; while whalebone, spermaceti and
ambergris are still more valuable products yielded by certain species.
Within the last few years whalebone has been sold in America for L2900
per ton, while it is also asserted that L3000 per ton has been paid for
two and a quarter tons at Aberdeen, although there seems to be some
degree of doubt attaching to the statement. Soon after the middle of the
last century, the price of this commodity was as low as L150 per ton,
but, according to Mr Frank Buckland, it suddenly leapt up to L620 with
the introduction of "crinoline" into ladies' costume, and it has
apparently been on the rise ever since. Ambergris, which is very largely
used in perfumery, is solely a product of the sperm-whale, and appears
to be a kind of biliary calculus. It generally contains a number of the
horny beaks of the cuttle-fishes and squids upon which these whales
chiefly feed. Its market-price is subject to considerable variation, but
from L3 to L4 per oz. is the usual average for samples of good quality.
In 1898 a merchant in Mincing Lane was the owner of a lump of ambergris
weighing 270 lb., which was sold in Paris for about 85 s. per oz., or
L18,360.

_Whalebone Whales_.--Existing Cetacea are divisible into two sections,
or suborders,