In different individuals the times consumed in performing these several acts vary, but in each they are minutely regular, and this well-known regularity is of much benefit to the whaleman; for, when he has once noticed the periods of any particular sperm whale which is not alarmed, he knows to a moment when to expect it again at the surface, and how long it will remain there. Immediately after each spout the nose sinks beneath the water, scarcely a second intervening for the act of inspiration, which must consequently be performed very quickly, the air rushing into the chest with astonishing velocity. There is, however, no sound caused by the expiration or spout; in this respect, also, differing from other whales, for the “fin-back” whale and some others have their inspirations accompanied by a loud sound, as of air forcibly drawn into a small orifice. This sound is called by whalemen the “drawback,” and when heard at night near the ship, convinces the listening watch of the species to which it belongs. In a large “bull” sperm whale, the time consumed in making one inspiration and one expiration, or the space from the termination of one spout to that of another, is ten seconds, during six of which the nostril is beneath the surface of the water, the inspiration occupying one, and the expiration three seconds; and at each breathing-time the whale makes from sixty to seventy inspirations, and remains, therefore, at the surface of the water eleven or twelve minutes. At the termination of this breathing-time, or, as whalemen say, when he has had his “spoutings out,” the head sinks slowly, the “small,” or the part between the hump and flukes, appears above the surface of the water, curved with the convexity upward; the flukes are then lifted high into the air, and the animal, having assumed a straight position, descends perpendicularly to an unknown depth. The act is performed with regularity and slowness, and is called by whalemen “turning flukes;” an act, too, which is always noticed by those at masthead, who call loudly, when they disappear below the surface, “T-h-e-r-e goes flukes!” The whale continues thus hidden beneath the surface from sixty to seventy minutes; some will remain an hour and twenty minutes. If we take into consideration the quantity of time that the full-grown sperm whale consumes in respiration, and also the time he takes in searching for food and performing other acts below the surface of the ocean, we should find that a seventh of the time of this huge animal is consumed in the function of respiration.