The largest of the baleen plates springs from the middle or highest part of the roof. These are sometimes from 12 to 15 feet in length; each plate is usually from 10 to 12 inches wide at the root, and about half an inch thick. The plates diminish in size as they near the front of the mouth, those in the front being only a few inches long. One of the largest plates usually weighs 7 lbs., and the total yield of whalebone from a large whale is about one ton.
The baleen whales, having no teeth, are unable to kill and devour other large inhabitants of the sea, in spite of their own enormous size. Their throat is so small that itwould be impossible for them to swallow any creature larger than a herring. Their food, in fact, consists of very small animals-for the most part the small soft-bodied animals which exist in myriads in every sea.
Think of the enormous number of such small things it must take to supply one meal, and then think of the manner in which it captures them. Picture to yourselves this powerful creature cleaving its way with headlong speed through the water, with its immense cavernous mouth wide open. This mouth, with its fringed baleen plates, is a trap to catch thousands and thousands of the small prey as the whale rushes through the water.
The baleen whales are hunted and killed for the sake of their blubber and baleen plates.
Whalebone was till late years largely used for the ribs or stretchers of umbrellas. Nowadays steel frames are mostly used, but whalebone is still employed for the best carriage umbrellas. It is also much used, split into fibers, as a substitute for bristles for coarse brooms and brushes. It is used in thin narrow slips to strengthen women"s stays and corsets. Whalebone softens when heated, and becomes pliable. In this state it is molded into a variety of articles, such as knobs for walking-sticks, whip-handles, etc.
When a whale is caught the blubber is all removedfrom the carcass for the sake of the oil which it contains. The blubber of a full-grown whale will yield 100 tons of oil. It is known in commerce as train-oil or whale-oil.
The sperm whale or cachalot of the Eastern Archipelago (that is the seas between Australia and Japan) is a very different animal from the baleen whale. It is sought after mostly for the sake of a very valuable oil-spermaceti- which is obtained from the head. The oil obtained fromthe carcass itself is known as sperm oil.
The head is of enormous size-half as large as the entire body, and is said to weigh 35 tons. It has formidable teeth in the lower jaw, but no baleen plates. The teeth are from twenty to twenty-five in number, and vary in size, some of them weighing as much as 30 lbs. The oily matter of the head is contained in a triangular-shaped hollow, which is known as the sperm case. About 400 gallons of oil are usually obtained from a single head.
This enormous mass of oil makes the head very light, and, in fact, acts as a kind of float to keep the nostrils above the water.
Spermaceti is used mostly for making candles, but its use for this and other purposes has greatly diminishedduring the last quarter of a century. The introduction of petroleum and vegetable oils has had the effect of driving this and other animal oils out of the market. The consequence is that the whale fisheries have gradually declined, both as regards British and foreign ports, while France has given them up altogether.
