BALA, a town of Merionethshire in Wales. W. Long. 3° 37'. N. Lat. 52° 54'.

BALENA, or whale, in zoology, a genus of the mammalia class, belonging to the order of cetaceans. The characters of this genus are these: The balena, in place of teeth, has a horny plate on the upper jaw, and a double fistula or pipe for throwing out water. The species are four, viz.

1. The mysticetus, or common whale, which has common turnings and windings in its nostrils, and has no whale fin on the back. This is the largest of all animals; it is even at present sometimes found in the northern seas 90 feet in length; but formerly they were taken of a much greater size, when the captures were less frequent, and the fish had time to grow. Such is their bulk within the arctic circle; but in those of the torrid zone, where they are unmolested, whales are still seen 160 feet long. The head is very much disproportioned to the size of the body, being one third the size of the tail, &c. The under lip is much broader than the upper. The tongue is composed of a soft spongy fat, capable of yielding five or six barrels of oil. The gullet is very small for so vast a fish, not exceeding four inches in width. In the middle of the head are two orifices, through which it spouts water to a vast height, and with a great noise, especially when disturbed or wounded. The eyes are not larger than those of an ox, and when the crystalline humour is dried, it does not appear larger than a pea. They are placed towards the back of the head, being the most convenient situation for enabling them to see both before and behind; as also to see over them, where their food is principally found. They are guarded by eye-lids and eye-lashes, as in quadrupeds; and they seem to be very sharp-fighted.

Nor is their sense of hearing in less perfection; for they are warned at great distances of any danger preparing against them. It would seem as if nature had delightedly given them these advantages, as they multiply little, in order to continue their kind. It is true, indeed, that the external organ of hearing is not perceptible, for this might only embarrass them in their natural element; but as soon as the thin ear-flap, after mentioned is removed, a black spot is discovered behind the eye, and under that is the auditory canal, that leads to a regular apparatus for hearing. In short, the animal hears the smallest sounds at very great distances, and at all times, except when it is spouting water; which is the time that the fishers approach to strike it. What is called whalebone, adheres to the upper jaw; and is formed of thin parallel laminae, some of the longest four yards in length: of these there are commonly 350 on each side, but in very old fish more; about 500 of them are of a length fit for use, the others being too short. They are surrounded with long strong hair, not only that they may not hurt the tongue, but as strainers to prevent the return of their food when they discharge the water out of their mouths.—The real bones of the whale are hard, porous, and full of marrow. Two great strong bones sustain the upper lip, lying against each other in the shape of an half-moon.

The tail is broad and semilunar; and when the fish lies on one side, its blow is tremendous. The tail alone it makes use of to advance itself forward in the water; and it is surprising to see with what force and celerity its enormous bulk cuts through the ocean. The fins are only made use of for turning in the water, and giving a direction to the velocity impressed by the tail. The female also makes use of them, when pursued, to bear off her young, clapping them on her back, and supporting supporting them by the fins on each side from falling.

The whale varies in colour; the back of some being red, the belly generally white. Others are black, some mottled, others quite white; according to the observation of Martin, who says, that their colours in the water are extremely beautiful, and that their skin is very smooth and slippery. The outward or scarf-skin of the whale is no thicker than parchment; but this removed, the real skin appears, of about an inch thick, and covering the fat or blubber that lies beneath: this is from eight to twelve inches in thickness; and is, when the fish is in health, of a beautiful yellow. The muscles lie beneath; and these, like the flesh of quadrupeds, are very red and tough. The penis is eight feet in length, inclosed in a strong sheath. The teats in the female are placed in the lower part of the belly.

In copulation, the female joins with the male, as is affected, more humanly; and once in two years feels the accesses of desire. Their fidelity to each other exceeds whatever we are told of, even the constancy of birds. Some fishers, as Anderson informs us, having struck one of two whales, a male and a female, that were in company together, the wounded fish made a long and terrible resistance: it struck down a boat with three men in it, with a single blow of its tail, by which all went to the bottom. The other still attended its companion, and lent it every assistance; till, at last, the fish that was struck sunk under the number of its wounds; while its faithful associate, disdaining to survive the loss, with great bellowing, stretched itself upon the dead fish, offspring; and shared its fate.—The whale goes with young nine parental or ten months, and is then fatter than usual, particularly when near the time of bringing forth. It is said that the embryo, when first perceptible, is about 17 inches long, and white; but the cub, when excluded, is black, and about 10 feet long. She generally produces one young one, and never above two. When the suckles her young, she throws herself on one side on the surface of the sea, and the young one attaches itself to the teat.

Nothing can exceed the tenderness of the female for her offspring; she carries it with her wherever she goes, and, when hardest pursued, keeps it supported between her fins. Even when wounded, she still clings to her young one; and when the plunges to avoid danger, takes it to the bottom; but rises sooner than usual, to give it breath again. The young ones continue at the breast for a year, during which time they are called by the sailors short-beaks. They are then extremely fat, and yield above 50 barrels of blubber. The mother at the same time is equally lean and emaciated. At the age of two years they are called flints, as they do not thrive much immediately after quitting the breast; they then yield scarce above 20 or 24 barrels of blubber: from that time forward they are called skull-fish, and their age is wholly unknown.

Every species of whale propagates only with those of its own kind, and does not at all mingle with the rest: however, they are generally seen in shoals, of different kinds together, and make their migrations in large companies from one ocean to another. They are gregarious animals; which implies their want of mutual defence against the invasions of smaller, but more powerful, fishes. It seems astonishing, therefore, how a shoal of these enormous animals find subsistence together, when it would seem that the supplying even one with food would require greater plenty than the ocean could furnish. To increase our wonder, we not only see them herding together, but usually find them fatter than any other animals of whatsoever element. We likewise know that they cannot swallow large fishes, as their throat is so narrow that an animal larger than an herring could not enter. How then do they subsist and grow so fat? A certain sort of small snail, or (as Linnaeus says) the medusa* or sea-blubber, is sufficient for this supply. Content with this simple food, it pursues no other animal, leads an inoffensive life in its element, and is harmless in proportion to its strength to enemies.

As the whale is an inoffensive animal, it is not to be wondered that it has many enemies, willing to take advantage of its disposition, and inaptitude for combat. There is a small animal, of the shell-fish kind, called the whale-long, that sticks to its body, as we see shells sticking to the foul bottom of a ship. This infatuates itself chiefly under the fins; and whatever efforts the great animal makes, it still keeps its hold, and lives upon the fat, which it is provided with instruments to arrive at.

The sword-fish†, however, is the whale’s most terrible enemy. “At the sight of this little animal,” says Pietra, Anderson, “the whale seems agitated in an extraordinary manner; leaping from the water as if with affright: wherever it appears, the whale perceives it at a distance, and flies from it in the opposite direction. I have been myself,” continues he, “a spectator of their terrible encounter. The whale has no instrument of defense except the tail: with that it endeavors to strike the enemy; and a single blow taking place, would effectually destroy its adversary: but the sword-fish is as active as the other is strong, and easily avoids the stroke; then bounding into the air, it falls upon its great subjacent enemy, and endeavors not to pierce it with its pointed beak, but to cut with its toothed edges. The sea all about it is seen dyed with blood, proceeding from the wounds of the whale; while the enormous animal vainly endeavors to reach its invader, and strikes with its tail against the surface of the water, making a report at each blow louder than the noise of a cannon.” In calm weather, the fishermen lie upon their oars as spectators of this combat, until they perceive the whale, at the last gasp: then they row towards him; and his enemy retiring at their approach, they enjoy the fruits of the victory. This account, however, is different in several respects from that commonly given by seamen; who report, that a fish called the Thrasher (a species of Squalus), is in league with the sword-fish; and that the former keeps on the back of the whale while the latter wounds it underneath in the belly, which occasions him to rise to the surface of the water, and to give the thrasher an opportunity of attacking in the combat. This he does by throwing himself into an erect posture; and like a boy tumbling neck over heels, falls down with astonishing force on the back of his prey: And thus they go on till the poor whale is destroyed. The grampus, and other large fishes of the cetaceous order, are attacked and destroyed by the same enemies in a similar manner.—The whale has another desperate enemy, a kind of shark, of different sizes from one to three fathoms; so voracious, that it tears large pieces of flesh from the whale, as if they had been dug with shovels.

To view these animals in a commercial light, we must observe, that the English were late before they engaged in the whale fishery; it appears by a set of queries proposed by an honest merchant in the year 1575, in order to get information in the business, that we were at that time totally ignorant of it, being obliged to send to Biskaine for men skilful in the catching of the whale, and ordering of the oil, and one cooper skilful to set up the flayed casks. This seems very strange; for by the account Ochter gives of his travels to King Alfred, near 700 years before that period, it is evident that he made that monarch acquainted with the Norwegians practising the whale-fishery; but it seems all memory of that gainful employ, as well as of that able voyager Ochter, and all his important discoveries in the north, were lost for near seven centuries.

It was carried on by the Biscayeners long before we attempted the trade; and that for the sake not only of the oil but also of the whalebone, which they seem to have long trafficked in. The earliest notice we find of that article in our trade is by Hackluyt, who says it was brought from the Bay of St Laurence by an English ship that went there for the barbes and fynnes of whales and train oil. A.D. 1594, and who found there 700 or 800 whale fynnes, part of the cargo of two great Biskaine ships that had been wrecked there three years before. Previous to that, the ladies stays must have been made of split cane, or some tough wood, as Mr Anderson observes in his Dictionary of Commerce; it being certain that the whale-fishery was carried on for the sake of the oil long before the discovery of the use of whalebone.

The great resort of these animals was found to be on the inhospitable shores of Spitzbergen, and the European ships made that place their principal fishery, and for numbers of years were very successful: the English commenced that business about the year 1598, and the town of Hull had the honour of first attempting that profitable branch of trade. At present it seems to be on the decline, the quantity of fish being greatly reduced by the constant capture for such a vast length of time: some recent accounts inform us, that the fishers, from a defect of whales, apply themselves to seal fishery, from which animals they extract an oil. This we fear will not be of very long continuance; for these shy and timid creatures will soon be induced to quit those shores by being perpetually harassed, as the morse or walrus has already in a great measure done. We are also told, that the poor natives of Greenland begin even now to suffer from the decrease of the seal in their seas, it being their principal subsistence; so that, should it totally desert the coast, the whole nation would be in danger of perishing through want.

In old times the whale seems never to have been taken on our coasts, but when it was accidentally flung ashore: it was then deemed a royal fish, and the king and queen divided the spoil; the king afflicting his right to the head, her majesty to the tail.—For the manner of taking whales, see Whale-Fishery.

2. The physetus, or fin-fish, is distinguished from the common whale by a fin on the back, placed very low and near the tail. The length is equal to that of the common kind, but much more slender. It is furnished with whalebone in the upper jaw, mixed with hairs, but short and knotty, and of little value. The blubber also on the body of this kind is very inconsiderable. These circumstances, added to its extreme fierceness and agility, which renders the capture very dangerous, cause the fishers to neglect it. The natives of Greenland, however, hold it in great esteem, as it affords a quantity of flesh which to their palate is very agreeable. The lips are brown, and like a twisted rope: the spout-hole is as it were split in the top of its head, through which it blows water with much more violence, and to a greater height, than the common whale. The fishers are not very fond of seeing it, for on its appearance the others retire out of those seas. Some writers conjecture this species to have been the Φωσκός, and physeter, or blowing whale of Oppian, Ἀλιάν, and Pliny: but since those writers have not left the least description of it, it is impossible to judge which kind they meant; for in respect to the faculty of spouting out water, or blowing, it is not peculiar to any one species, but common to all the whale kind. The physetus inhabits the European and American oceans. It feeds upon herrings and other small fish.

3. The boops, or pike-headed whale, has a double pipe in its snout, three fins like the former, and a hard horny ridge on its back. The belly is full of longitudinal folds or rugae. It frequents the northern ocean. The length of that taken on the coast of Scotland, as remarked by Sir Robert Sibbald, was 46 feet, and its greatest circumference 20. This species takes its name from the shape of its nose, which is narrower and sharper-pointed than that of other whales.

4. The musculus has a double pipe in its front, and three fins; the under jaw is much wider than the upper one. It frequents the Scottish coasts, and feeds upon herrings.

Linnaeus makes the physeter and delphinus, which are ranked among the whales by some writers, two distinct genera. See Physeter and Delphinus.