ater which they
have taken in while feeding. But the most remarkable point of
difference between the whale and fishes of all kinds is, that it
suckles its young.

The calf of one kind of whale is about fourteen feet long when it is
born, and it weighs about a ton. The cow-whale usually brings forth
only one calf at a time, and the manner in which she behaves to her
gigantic baby shows that she is affected by feelings of anxiety and
affection such as are never seen in fishes, which heartless creatures
forsake their eggs when they are laid, and I am pretty sure they would
not know their own children if they happened to meet with them.

The whale, on the contrary, takes care of her little one, gives it
suck, and sports playfully with it in the waves; its enormous heart
throbbing all the while, no doubt, with satisfaction.

I have heard of a whale which was once driven into shoal water with its
calf and nearly stranded. The huge dam seemed to become anxious for
the safety of her child, for she was seen to swim eagerly round it,
embrace it with her fins, and roll it over in the waves, trying to make
it follow her into deep water. But the calf was obstinate; it would
not go, and the result was that the boat of a whaler pulled up and
harpooned it. The poor little whale darted away like lightning on
receiving the terrible iron, and ran out a hundred fathoms of line; but
it was soon overhauled and killed. All this time the dam kept close to
the side of its calf, and not until a harpoon was plunged into her own
side would she move away. Two boats were after her. With a single rap
of her tail she cut one of the boats in two, and then darted off. But
in a short time she turned and came back. Her feelings of anxiety had
returned, no doubt, after the first sting of pain was over, and she
died at last close to the side of her young one.

There are various kinds of whales, but the two sorts that are most
sought after are the common whale of the Greenland Seas, which is
called the "right whale", and the sperm whale of the South Sea. Both
kinds are found in the south; but the sperm whale never goes to the
North Seas. Both kinds grow to an enormous size--sometimes to seventy
feet in length, but there is considerable difference in their
appearance, especially about the head. In a former chapter I have
partly described the head of a _right_ whale, which has whalebone
instead of teeth, with its blowholes on the back of the h