Now, this occasional inevitable sinking of the recently killed
Sperm Whale is a very curious thing; nor has any fisherman yet
adequately accounted for it. Usually the dead Sperm Whale
floats with great buoyancy, with its side or belly considerably
elevated above the surface. If the only whales that thus sank
were old, meagre, and broken-hearted creatures, their pads
of lard diminished and all their bones heavy and rheumatic;
then you might with some reason assert that this sinking is
caused by an uncommon specific gravity in the fish so sinking,
consequent upon this absence of buoyant matter in him.
But it is not so. For young whales, in the highest health,
and swelling with noble aspirations, prematurely cut off
in the warm flush and May of life, with all their panting lard
about them! even these brawny, buoyant heroes do sometimes sink.
Be it said, however, that the Sperm Whale is far less
liable to this accident than any other species.
Where one of that sort go down, twenty Right Whales do.
This difference in the species is no doubt imputable in no small
degree to the greater quantity of bone in the Right Whale;
his Venetian blinds alone sometimes weighing more than a ton;
from this incumbrance the Sperm Whale is wholly free.
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