To her little ones the mother whale gives devoted attention. She suckles them for about two months, at the end of which time they are able to feed on crustaceans and small fish. Then the mother sets off with her family to complete their education by taking them abroad in the water-world. The baby whales can swim as soon as they are born, but not so fast as their big mother, and she carefully accommodates her pace to theirs. If danger threatens, she places herself between it and her child, and hastens the little one’s flight by pressing against it, and so shoving it through the water. If there is need to go still faster, she sometimes grasps the young one between her flippers and her neck, and so swims with all her might, carrying the little one off. If attacked, she will sacrifice her life rather than abandon her baby. When the baby whale is attacked, the usually mild mother shows great fury. A male whale also will defend his mate if she is attacked, swimming round and round her, blowing, lashing the waves with his powerful tail, and trying to overturn boats with his mighty head; he will die rather than desert her. Such noble, loyal qualities shown by these animals deepen our regret that through promiscuous slaughter, they are rapidly diminishing in numbers, and are likely to disappear from the Northern hemisphere. Sharks, narwhals, and white bears are enemies of the whale, but none of these brute hunters are as reckless and destructive in their warfare as men. The sperm whale is more nearly allied to the porpoise than to the right whale. From the sperm whale, oil, ivory, ambergris, and spermaceti are obtained, but no whalebone. The spermaceti, from which this whale derives its name, is found in a cistern-like reservoir over two yards deep, placed near the brain cavity at the back of the whale’s head. This reservoir contains many gallons of spermaceti. Dolphins, narwhals, and rorquals, all belong to the whale family. The rorquals have larger fins than the other whales. The blue whale is the largest of all the family.[81] The humpbacked whale is shorter and thicker than the other varieties, has a queerly shaped back fin, and large flippers. FOOTNOTES: [78] See Nature Reader, No. 3, pp. 243-4. [79] Neck or nick, or notch. Notice etymology. [80] A _fluke_ is either half of the tail of a cetacean, so called from the resemblance of the tail to an anchor, as the teeth of an anchor are called flukes. [81] This _Balænoptera sibbaldii_ gets its common name from its bluish gray color; it is supposed to be the largest of living animals. LESSON XLIV. THE STORY OF A SEAL-SKIN COAT. “And there we hunted the walrus, The narwhal and the seal. Ha! ’twas a noble game! And like the lightning’s flame, Flew our harpoons of steel.” --H. W. LONGFELLOW, _in The Discoverer of the North Cape_. [Illustration: GARMENTS OF PRICE.]