The length of the bones or slabs[I] vary in a great measure according to the size of the fish, though some varieties of this species have larger and better bone than others. The value of the bone is enhanced, as a general thing, in proportion to its length. The principal food of the right whale is a very small, red fish, called "brit." Immense shoals of these fish are seen on whale grounds; and the water to a great distance, even for miles, becomes colored with them. When the whale takes his food, he throws open his lips, or lets them fall, and, swimming with great velocity, he scoops up an infinite number of these small fish and others that accompany them, some of them scarcely larger than half of an ordinary sized pea; he then closes his lips, and pressing out the water from his mouth, every particle of solid matter is securely retained within. "The mouth of the whale is an organ of very wonderful construction. In a large specimen of the race, it may measure, when fully opened, about sixteen feet long, twelve feet high, and ten feet wide--an apartment, in truth, of very good dimensions. Notwithstanding the enormous bulk of this creature, its throat is so narrow that it would choke upon a morsel fitted for the deglutition of an ox. Its food, therefore, must be, as it really is, in very small particles. Such is the wonderful contrivance of nature, and in which we can discover an instance of remarkable wisdom in the Creator and Provider of his creatures." The right whale does not fight or contend with his mouth or head, as the sperm whale does; but his means of attack and defence are chiefly in his enormous flukes. He will, however, when struck, "root around," as whalemen say, and not unfrequently in this manner upset a boat. This kind of whale, and other varieties, distinguished by the baleen or bone, have no regular time for remaining on the surface of the water after they "breach," nor in remaining under water after they "turn flukes." The length of a large right whale is about eighty feet, and some have yielded their captors two hundred and fifty to three hundred barrels of oil. Such a whale would perhaps weigh not far from eighty tons. Allowing one ox to weigh twenty-five hundred or three thousand pounds, he would weigh down more than fifty of such animals. And what a sublime sight it must be--and whalemen have often observed it--to see such a prodigious living mass leaping right into the air, clear, altogether out of the water, so that the horizon can be seen between the fish and the ocean! These stupendous exercises and gambols of such huge creatures are termed "breaching." Sometimes a whale will turn its head downwards, and, moving its tremendous tail high in the air, will lash the water with violence, raising a cloud of vapor, and sending a loud report to the distance of two or three miles. This is called "lobtailing" by whalemen.