
only live by inhaling the disengaged air in the open atmosphere. Wherefore the
necessity for his periodical visits to the upper world. But he cannot in any
degree breathe through his mouth, for, in his ordinary attitude, the sperm
whale's mouth is buried at least eight feet beneath the surface; and what is
still more, his windpipe has no connection with his mouth. No, he breathes
through his spiracle alone; and this is on the top of his head.
    If I say that in any creature breathing is only a function indispensable to
vitality, inasmuch as it withdraws from the air a certain element, which being
subsequently brought into contact with the blood imparts to the blood its
vivifying principle, I do not think I shall err; though I may possibly use some
superfluous scientific words. Assume it, and it follows that if all the blood in
a man could be aerated with one breath, he might then seal up his nostrils and
not fetch another for a considerable time. That is to say, he would then live
without breathing. Anomalous as it may seem, this is precisely the case with the
whale, who systematically lives, by intervals, his full hour and more (when at
the bottom) without drawing a single breath, or so much as in any way inhaling a
particle of air; for, remember, he has no gills. How is this? Between his ribs
and on each side of his spine he is supplied with a remarkable involved Cretan
labyrinth of vermicelli-like vessels, which vessels, when he quits the surface,
are completely distended with oxygenated blood. So that for an hour or more, a
thousand fathoms in the sea, he carries a surplus stock of vitality in him, just
as the camel crossing the waterless desert carries a surplus supply of drink for
future use in its four supplementary stomachs. The anatomical fact of this
labyrinth is indisputable; and that the supposition founded upon it is
reasonable and true, seems the more cogent to me, when I consider the otherwise
inexplicable obstinacy of that leviathan in having his spoutings out, as the
fishermen phrase it. This is what I mean. If unmolested, upon rising to the
surface, the sperm whale will continue there for a period of time exactly
uniform with all his other unmolested risings. Say he stays eleven minutes, and
jets seventy times, that is, respires seventy breaths; then whenever he rises
again, he will be sure to have his seventy breaths over again, to a minute. Now,
if after he fetches a few breaths you alarm him, so that he sounds,
