The ocean as a health-resort : a handbook of practical information as to sea-voyages for the use of tourists and invalids / by William S. Wilson ; with a chart showing the ocean-routes and illustrating the physical geography of the sea.

Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The ocean as a health-resort : a handbook of practical information as to sea-voyages for the use of tourists and invalids / by William S. Wilson ; with a chart showing the ocean-routes and illustrating the physical geography of the sea. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    133/296 (page 117)
    that more than a day or two will pass without the cry of ''Whale ! causing a general rush of passengers to the side of the ship. But it must not be imagined that all whales are alike. On the contrary, the term whale is so wide in its application, and includes so many different creatures, that it will be as well to say a very few words as to some of the principal species and their general peculiarities. The whale family {Cetaceans) as a whole are distinguished from the fishes in many important particulars. Their orga- nization is much more perfect. They bring forth living young ; breathe by means of lungs instead of gills ; have a double heart; and possess warm blood, the temperature of which is kept up by a skin of great thickness and an enormous layer of fat or blubber from one to two feet in depth. They are also furnished with a blowhole in the upper part of the head which corresponds with the nostrils of terrestrial animals, and which is either single or double according to the species. The tail is also set on horizon- tally, instead of vertically as in the case of the fishes. The cetaceans are divided into two great classes—viz., those that have teeth, and those that have a fringe of whalebone instead of teeth. The latter—the whalebone whales—are again divided into smooth-backs and fin-backs. Amongst the smooth-backs is included the Grreenland whale {Balcena mysticetxis), which is not only the largest of the whales, but also the greatest of all animals, attaining sometimes a length of sixty to seventy feet and a girth of some forty feet. The whale of the southern hemisphere, which corresponds to the Greenland whale of the north, is considerably smaller, but in other respects very similar. Its scientific name is Balcena Antarctica. Neither this nor the Greenland whale are believed to pass the equator, the two species remaining quite separate.