Whale

(hwāl), n. [A-S. hwāl, Icel. hvalr, Dan. & Sw. hval, hvalfisk, D. walvisch, O. H. Ger. wal, N. H. Ger. walfisch, allied to Gr. φάλη, φάλαινα, Lat. balæna.] (Zoöl.) An animal inhabiting the ocean, of the class of Mammals, tribe of Mutilates, and family of Cetacea.

☞ The Greenland whale, or right whale, is of the genus Balæna (B. mysticetus). When fully grown, it is from fifty to sixty-five or seventy feet in length, and from thirty to forty feet in its greatest circumference. The whale furnishes oil, whalebone, &c. A single whale sometimes yields twenty tons of pure oil, which is obtained from the thick layer of fat or blubber, lying sometimes several feet in thickness under the skin.

Greenland Whale (Balæna mysticetus).

Spermaceti Whale (Physeter [or Catodon] macrocephalus).

The fin-backed whale, called also razor-back, or great northern rorqual, is of the genus Balænoptera (B. antiquorum), and is probably the longest animal in creation, sometimes exceeding one hundred feet in length. The spermaceti whale, or cachalot, has a large, almost triangular, cavity in the right side of the nose, adapted for secreting and containing an oily fluid, which, after death, concretes into a granulated substance of a yellowish color, called spermaceti. Baird.