animal capable of quitting its rocky lurking-place in the sea, and going
on a buccaneering expedition on dry land. Many incidents have been
related in connection with this; but I can attest it from my own
observation. I have seen an octopus travel over the floor of a room at a
very fair rate of speed, toppling and sprawling along in its own
ungainly fashion; and in May, 1873, we had one at the Brighton Aquarium
which used regularly every night to quit its tank, and make its way
along the wall to another tank at some distance from it, in which were
some young lump-fishes. Day after day, one of these was missing, until,
at last, the marauder was discovered. Many days elapsed, however, before
he was detected, for after helping himself to, and devouring a young
"lump-sucker," he demurely returned before daylight to his own quarters.
Of this habit of the octopus the ancients were, also, fully aware.
Aristotle wrote that it left the water and walked in stony places, and
Pliny and AElian related tales of this animal stealing barrels of salt
fish from the wharves, and crushing their staves to get at the contents.
An octopus that could do this would be as formidable a predatory monster
as the Lernean Hydra, which had the evil reputation of devouring the
Peloponnesian cattle.
Whoever first described the counter-attack of the Hydra on Hercules must
have had the octopus in his thoughts. "It twisted itself round one of
his feet"--exactly that which an octopus would do.
[Illustration: FIG. 23.--HERCULES SLAYING THE LERNEAN HYDRA.
_From Smith's 'Classical Dictionary.'_]
Finally, according to the legend, Hercules dipped his arrow-heads in the
gall of the Hydra, and, from its poisonous nature, all the wounds he
inflicted with them upon his enemies proved fatal. It is worthy of
notice that the ancients attributed to the octopus the possession of a
similarly venomous secretion. Thus Oppian writes:
"The crawling preke a deadly juice contains
Injected poison fires the wounded veins."
The accompanying illustration (Fig. 23) of Hercules slaying the Hydra
is taken from a marble tablet in the Vatican. It will be immediately
seen how closely the Hydra, as there depicted, resembles an octopus. The
body is elongated, but the eight necks with small heads on them bear
about the same proportion to the body as the arms to the body of an
octopus.
The Reverend James Spence, in his 'Polymetis,' published in 1755, gives
a figure, almost the counterpart of this, copied from an antique gem, a
carnelian, in the collection of the Grand Duke of Tuscany at Florence.
Only seven necks of the hydra are, however, there visible, and there are
two coils in the elongated body. On the upper part are two spots which
have been supposed to represent breasts. This was probably intended by
the artificer; but that the idea originated from a duplication of the
syphon tube is evident from the figures (Figs. 21, 22) of the octopus on
the smaller gold ornaments found by Dr. Schliemann at Mycenae. In the
same work is also an engraving from a picture in the Vatican Virgil,
entitled 'The River, or Hateful Passage into the Kingdom of Ades,'
wherein an octopus-hydra, of which only six heads and necks are shown,
is one of the monsters called by the author "Terrors of the
Imagination."
SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS.
In the description given by Homer, in the twelfth book of the 'Odyssey,'
of the unfortunate nymph Scylla, transformed by the arts of Circe into a
frightful monster, the same typical idea as in the case of the Hydra is
perceptible. The lurking octopus, having its lair in the cranny of a
rock, watching in ambush for passing prey, seizing anything coming
within its reach with one or more of its prehensile arms, even
brandishing these fear-inspiring weapons out of water in a threatening
manner, and known in some localities to be dangerous to boats and their
occupants, is transformed into a many-headed sea monster, seizing in its
mouths, instead of by the adhesive suckers of its numerous arms, the
helpless sailors from passing vessels, and devouring them in the abysses
of its cavernous den.
Circe, prophesying to Ulysses the dangers he had still to encounter,
warned him especially of Scylla and Charybdis, within the power of one
of whom he must fall in passing through the narrow strait (between Italy
and Sicily) where they had their horrid abode. Describing the lofty rock
of Scylla, she tells him:
"Full in the centre of this rock displayed
A yawning cavern casts a dreadful shade,
Nor the fleet arrow from the twanging bow
Sent with full force, could reach the depth below.
Wide to the west the horrid gulf extends,
And the dire passage down to hell descends.
O fly the dreadful sight! expand thy sails,
Ply the strong oar, and catch the nimble gales;
Here Scylla bellows from her dire abodes;
Tremendous pest! abhorred by man and gods!
Hideous her voice, and with less terrors roar
The whelps of lions in the midnight hour.
Twelve feet deformed and foul the fiend dispreads;
Six horrid necks she rears, and six terrific heads;
* * * * *
When stung with hunger she embroils the flood,
The sea-dog and the dolphin are her food;
She makes the huge leviathan her prey,
And all the monsters of the wat'ry way;
The swiftest racer of the azure plain
Here fills her sails and spreads her oars in vain;
Fell Scylla rises, in her fury roars,
At once six mouths expands, at once six men devours."[72]
[72] Homer's 'Odyssey,' Pope's Translation, Book XII.
Circe then describes the perils of the whirling waters of Charybdis as
still more dreadful; and, admonishing Ulysses that once in her power all
must perish, she advises him to choose the lesser of the two evils, and
to
"shun the horrid gulf, by Scylla fly;
'Tis better six to lose than all to die."
Ulysses continues his voyage; and as his ship enters the ominous strait,
"Struck with despair, with trembling hearts we viewed
The yawning dungeon, and the tumbling flood;
When, lo! fierce Scylla stooped to seize her prey,
Stretched her dire jaws, and swept six men away.
Chiefs of renown! loud echoing shrieks arise;
I turn, and view them quivering in the skies;
They call, and aid, with outstretched arms, implore,
In vain they call! those arms are stretched no more.
As from some rock that overhangs the flood,
The silent fisher casts th' insidious food;
With fraudful care he waits the finny prize,
And sudden lifts it quivering to the skies;
So the foul monster lifts her prey on high,
So pant the wretches, struggling in the sky;
In the wide dungeon she devours her food,
And the flesh trembles while she churns the blood."
THE "SPOUTING" OF WHALES.
One of the sea-fallacies still generally believed, and accepted as true,
is that whales take in water by the mouth, and eject it from the
spiracle, or blow-hole.
The popular ideas on this subject are still those which existed hundreds
of years ago, and which are expressed by Oppian in two passages in his
'Halieutics':
"Uncouth the sight when they in dreadful play
Discharge their nostrils and refund a sea,"
and
"While noisy fin-fish let their fountains fly
And spout the curling torrent to the sky."
Eminent zoologists and intelligent observers, who have had full
opportunities of obtaining practical knowledge of the habits of these
great marine mammals, have forcibly combated and repeatedly contradicted
this erroneous idea; but their sensible remarks have been read by few,
in comparison with the numbers of those to whom a wrong impression has
been conveyed by sensational pictures in which whales are represented
_with their heads above the surface_, and throwing up from their
nostrils columns of water, like the fountains in Trafalgar Square. One
can hardly be surprised that the old writers on Natural History were
unacquainted with the real composition of the whale's "spout." Those of
them who sought for any original information on marine zoology, obtained
it chiefly from uninstructed and superstitious fishermen; but they
generally contented themselves with diligent compilation, and thus
copied and transmitted the errors of their predecessors, with the
addition of some slight embellishments of their own. Accordingly, we
find Olaus Magnus[73] describing, as follows, the _Physeter_, or, as his
translator, Streater, calls it, the _Whirlpool_. "The _Physeter_ or
_Pristis_," he says, "is a kind of whale, two hundred cubits long, and
is very cruel. For, to the danger of seamen, he will sometimes raise
himself above the sail-yards, and casts such floods of waters above his
head, which he had sucked in, that with a cloud of them he will often
sink the strongest ships, or expose the mariners to extreme danger. This
beast hath also a large round mouth, like a lamprey, whereby he sucks in
his meat or water, and by his weight cast upon the fore or hinder deck,
he sinks and drowns a ship."
[73] 'Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus,' lib. xxi. cap. vi.
A.D. 1555.
Figures 24 and 25 (p. 64) are facsimiles of the illustrations which
accompany the above description. It will be seen that, in the first, the
_Physeter_ is depicted as uprearing a maned neck and head, like that of
a fabled dragon; whilst in Fig. 25 it is shown as a whale flinging
itself on board a ship, which is sinking under its ponderous weight. In
both, torrents of water are issuing from its head, and it is evident
that they are merely exaggerated misrepresentations of the "spouting" of
whales.
Gesner copies many of Olaus Magnus's illustrations, and improves upon
Fig. 25 by putting a numerous crew on board the ship. The unfortunate
sailors are depicted in every attitude of terror and despair, and seem
to be incapacitated from any attempt to save themselves by the flood of
water which the whale is deliberately pouring upon them from its
blow-holes.
[Illustration: FIG. 24.--THE PHYSETER INUNDATING A SHIP. _After Olaus
Magnus._]
[Illustration: FIG. 25.--A WHALE POURING WATER INTO A SHIP FROM ITS
BLOW-HOLE. _After Olaus Magnus._]
[Illustration: FIG. 26--SPERM WHALES SPOUTING.]
These old pictures appear, no doubt, ridiculous, but they are, really,
very little more absurd and untrue to nature than many of those which
disfigure some otherwise useful books on Natural History of the present
day. I could refer to several, in which whales are represented as
spouting from their blow-holes one or more columns of water, which,
after ascending skyward to a considerable distance, fall over gracefully
as if issuing from the nozzle of an ornamental fountain. I select one
from amongst them (Fig. 26), not with any disrespect for the artist,
author, or publisher of the work from which it is taken, but because,
whilst it shows correctly the position of the blow-hole of the sperm
whale, it also exhibits exactly that which I wish to confute. The
publishers of the valuable work in which this picture appeared have
generously consented to my reproducing it here.
When, in describing, in 1877, the White Whale then exhibited at the
Westminster Aquarium, I said that whales do not spout water out of their
blow-holes, and that the idea that they do so is a popular error, the
statement was so contrary to generally-accepted notions that I was not
surprised by receiving more than one letter on the subject. One very
reasonable suggestion made to me was that, although the lesser whales,
such as the porpoises, which I had had opportunities of watching in
confinement at Brighton for two years, and the _Beluga_, which had been
observed for a similar period at the New York Aquarium, and also at
Westminster, did not "spout," the respiratory apparatus of the larger
whales might be so modified as to permit them to do so. Let us consider
the construction of the breathing apparatus which would have to be thus
modified, as shown in the porpoise.
In the first place, there is a pair of lungs as perfect as those of any
land mammal, fitted to receive air, and to bring the hot blood into
contact with the air, that it may absorb the oxygen of the air, and so
be purified. But this air cannot well be breathed through the mouth of
an animal which has to take its food from and in water; so it has to be
inhaled only by the nostrils. If these were situated as they are in land
mammals, near the extremity of the nose, the porpoise would be obliged
to stop when pursuing its prey, or, escaping from its enemies, to put
the tip of its nose above the surface of the water every time it
required to breathe. A much more convenient arrangement has, therefore,
been provided for it, and for almost all whales, by which that
difficulty is removed. Instead of running along the bones of the nose,
the nostrils are placed on the top of the head, and the windpipe is
turned up to them without having any connection with the palate. The
upper jaw is quite solid. Thus the mouth is solely devoted to the
reception of food, and the animal is enabled to continue its course when
swimming, however rapidly, by rising obliquely to the surface, and
exposing the top of its head above it. On the blow-hole being opened,
the air, from which the oxygen has been absorbed, is expelled in a
sudden puff, another supply is instantaneously inhaled, and rushes into
the lungs with extreme velocity, and then the porpoise can either
descend into the depths, or remain with its spiracle exposed to the air,
as it may prefer. In this act of breathing the spiracle is normally
brought above the water, the breath escapes, and the immediate
inhalation is effected almost in silence. But frequently, and in some
whales habitually, the blow-hole is opened just below the surface, and
then the outrush of air causes a splash upwards of the water overlying
it.
I may here mention that I have frequently seen the porpoises at the
Brighton Aquarium lying asleep at the surface, with the blow-hole
exposed above it, breathing automatically, and without conscious effort.
Aristotle was acquainted with this habit of the cetacea 2,200 years ago,
for he wrote: "They sleep with the blow-hole, their organ of
respiration, elevated above the water."
The apparatus for closing the blow-hole, so that not a drop of water
shall enter the windpipe, even under great pressure, is a beautiful
contrivance, complex in its structure, yet most simple in its working.
The external aperture is covered by a continuation of the skin, locally
thickened, and connected with a conical stopper, of a texture as tough
as india-rubber, which fits perfectly into a cone or funnel formed by
the extremity of the windpipe, and closes more and more firmly as the
pressure upon it is increased. Whilst the orifice is thus guarded, the
lower end of the tube is surrounded by a strong compressing muscle,
which clasps also the glottis, and thus the passage from the blow-hole
to the lungs is completely stopped.
There is nothing in this which indicates the possibility of the spouting
of water from the nostrils; but as assertions that water had been seen
to issue from them were positive and persistent, anatomists seem to have
felt themselves obliged to try to account for it somehow. Accordingly
the theory was propounded by F. Cuvier that the water taken into the
mouth is reserved in two pouches (one on each side), until the whale
rises to blow, when, the gullet being closed, it is forced by the action
of the tongue and jaws through the nasal passages, somewhat as a smoker
occasionally expels the smoke of his cigar through his nostrils.
Although these pouches, or sacs analogous to them, are found at the base
of the nostrils of the horse, tapir, etc.,--animals which do not "spout"
from the nostrils water taken in by the mouth--the explanation was
accepted for a time.
Mr. Bell held this opinion when the first edition of his 'British
Quadrupeds' was published in 1837, but before the issue of the second
edition, in 1874, he had found reasons for taking a different view of
the matter; and, under the advice of his judicious editors, Mr. Alston,
and Professor Flower (the latter of whom supervised the proofs of the
chapters on the Cetacea) his sanction of the illusion was withdrawn as
follows:--"The results of more recent and careful observations, amongst
which we may notice those of Bennett, Von Baer, Sars and Burmeister, are
directly opposed to the statement that water is thus ejected; and there
can now be no doubt that the appearance which has given rise to the idea
is caused by the moisture with which the expelled breath is
supercharged, which condenses at once in the cold outer air, and forms a
cloud or column of white vapour. It is possible indeed that if the
animal begins to 'blow' before its head is actually at the surface, the
force of the rushing air may drive up some little spray along with it,
but this is quite different from the notion that water is really
expelled from the nasal passages. We may add that on the only occasion
when we ourselves witnessed the 'spouting' of a large whale we were much
struck with its resemblance to the column of white spray which is dashed
up by the ricochetting ball fired from one of the great guns of a
man-of-war."
The simile is admirable, and nothing could better describe the
appearance of a whale's "spout"; but, in the previous portion of the
passage (except with reference to the sperm whale, the nostrils of which
are not on the top of the head), I think sufficient importance is not
conceded to the volume of water propelled into the air by the outrush of
breath from the submerged blow-hole. I do not know how many cubic feet
of air the lungs of a great whale are capable of containing, but the
quantity is sufficient to force up to a height of several feet the water
above the valve when the latter is opened, not only in "some little
spray," but, for some distance in a good solid jet--enough, in fact, to
give the appearance of its actually issuing from the blow-hole, and to
account for the erroneous belief of sailors that it does so. It must be
remembered that the escape of air is not by a prolonged wheeze, but by a
sudden blast, and thus when the spiracle is opened just beneath the
surface, an instant before it is uncovered to take in a fresh supply of
air, the water above its orifice is thrown up as by a slight subaqueous
explosion, or as by the momentary opening under water of the
safety-valve of a steam boiler. Some idea of the force and volume of the
blast of air from the lungs of even the common porpoise may be formed
when I mention that one of the porpoises at the Brighton Aquarium,
happening to open its spiracle just beneath an illuminating gas jet
fixed over its tank, blew out the light.
In the sperm whale the nostrils are placed near the extremity of the
nose, and therefore this whale has to raise its snout above the surface
when it requires to breathe; but instead of this being necessary, as in
the case of the porpoise twice or thrice in a minute, the sperm whale
only rises to "blow" at intervals of from an hour to an hour and twenty
minutes. Mr. Beale says[74] that in a large bull sperm whale the time
consumed in making one expiration and one inspiration is ten seconds,
during six of which the nostril is beneath the surface of the water--the
expiration occupying three seconds, and the inspiration one second. At
each breathing time this whale makes from sixty to seventy expirations,
and remains, therefore, at the surface ten or eleven minutes, and then,
raising its tail, it descends perpendicularly, head first. In different
individuals the time required for performing these several acts varies;
but in each they are minutely regular, and this well-known regularity is
of considerable use to the fishers, for when a whaler has once noticed
the periods of any particular whale which is not alarmed, he knows to a
minute when to expect it to come to the surface, and how long it will
remain there. The "spout" of the sperm whale differs much from that of
other whales. Unlike, for instance, the straight perpendicular twin jets
of the "right whale," the single, forward-slanting "spout" of the sperm
whale presents a thick curled bush of white mist. Each whale has a
different mode and time of breathing, and the form of the "spout"
differs accordingly.
[74] 'Natural History of the Sperm Whale.' Van Voorst, 1839.
It is said that the blowing of the _Beluga_, or "White Whale," is not
unmusical at sea, and that when it takes place under water it often
makes a peculiar sound which might be mistaken for the whistling of a
bird. Hence is derived one of the names given to this whale by
sailors--the "Sea-canary." Though I have had opportunities of
attentively watching the breathing and other actions in captivity of two
specimens of this whale I have never been able to detect the sound
alluded to.
Besides the opinions cited by Mr. Bell concerning whales spouting water
from their blow-holes, we have other evidence which is most clear and
definite, and which ought to be convincing.
We will take first that of Mr. Beale, who as surgeon on board the
"Kent" and "Sarah and Elizabeth," South Sea whalers, passed several
seasons amongst sperm whales. He says:--"I can truly say when I find
myself in opposition to these old and received notions, that out of the
thousands of sperm whales which I have seen during my wanderings in the
South and North Pacific Oceans, I have never observed one of them to
eject a column of water from the nostril. I have seen them at a
distance, and I have been within a few yards of several hundreds of
them, and I never saw water pass from the spout-hole. But the column of
thick and dense vapour which is certainly ejected is exceedingly likely
to mislead the judgment of the casual observer in these matters; and
this column does indeed appear very much like a jet of water when seen
at the distance of one or two miles on a clear day, because of the
condensation of the vapour which takes place the moment it escapes from
the nostril, and its consequent opacity, which makes it appear of a
white colour, and which is not observed when the whale is close to the
spectator. It then appears only like a jet of white steam. The only
water in addition is the small quantity that may be lodged in the
external fissure of the spout hole, when the animal raises it above the
surface to breathe, and which is blown up into the air with the 'spout,'
and may probably assist in condensing the vapour of which it is
formed.... I have been also very close to the _Balaena mysticetus_ (the
Greenland, or Right whale) when it has been feeding and breathing, and
yet I never saw even that animal differ in the latter respect from the
sperm whale in the nature of the spout.... If the weather is fine and
clear, and there is a gentle breeze at the time, the spout may be seen
from the masthead of a moderate-sized vessel at the distance of four or
five miles."
Captain Scoresby, who was a veteran and successful whaler, a good
zoologist, and a highly intelligent observer, says:--"A moist vapour
mixed with mucus is discharged from the nostrils when the animal
breathes; but no water accompanies it unless an expiration of the breath
be made under the surface."