Whales are sometimes seen in troops sporting about near the surface of the ocean. They spout water through the spiracles on the top of their heads, with the rushing noise of a cataract, and to the height even of thirty or forty feet. Such are their powers in the water that, in some instances, their motion through that element has been calculated at thirty feet in a second, or upwards of twenty miles in an hour. Great caution is required in attacking them, as, with a single blow of their tail, they are able to upset a tolerably large boat. They feed only on the smaller kinds of fish and other marine animals, as their throat is not sufficiently wide to admit of their swallowing any substance of large size, and they are not furnished with teeth to cut or grind their food into small pieces. The females produce only one young one each: this they suckle for many months, and are peculiarly affectionate and attentive towards it. These animals are occasionally stranded on the British shores, in which case, by the ancient laws of the land, they are deemed royal fish; the king being entitled to the anterior, and the queen to the posterior half. 119. _The FIN-BACKED WHALE, or FIN-FISH_ (Balæna physalus), _is a marine animal from sixty to ninety feet in length, with a thick fin on the hinder part of the back, the muzzle tapering, and the jaws somewhat pointed._ _This species is of more slender form than the last, its greatest circumference not in general exceeding fifteen or twenty feet. The spiracle or breathing hole is double, and situated on the middle of the fore part of the head; and the colour of the body is generally dark or blackish olive above, and white below. The whole surface appears polished and shining._ _These whales are chiefly found in the northern frozen ocean, and particularly about the coast of Greenland and Spitzbergen. But they sometimes enter the Mediterranean, and are not uncommon in the South American and Indian seas._ Although a smaller proportion of _oil_ is obtained from these than from the great whales, it is of much better quality than that. The inhabitants of Greenland consume it with their food, preferably to burning it in lamps, if oil of less value can be obtained for that purpose. The _whalebone_ is too short and narrow to be of much value. From the small quantity of oil, and little value of the whalebone, added to the difficulty and danger which are attendant on the pursuit of these active and powerful animals, they are not very eagerly sought after by the whale-fishers. We are assured that the _flesh_ of the fin-backed whale is as well tasted, and, in every respect, as excellent, as that of the sturgeon. In most of the northern countries, both of Europe and America, the _fins_, the _skin_, and the _tendons_, all serve for many useful purposes.