|
the greatest mystery of whales the whale is a mammal - warm-blooded, air-breathing, giving birth to its young alive, sucking them-and, like all mammals, originated on land. there are many signs of this. __1__ front flippers, used for steering and stability, are traces of feet. immense strength is built into the great body of the big whales, and in fact most of a whales body is one gigantic muscle. the blue whales pulling __2__ has been estimated at 400 horsepower. one specimen was reported to have __3__ a whaling vessel for seven hours at the __4__ of eight knots. an enraged whale will attack a ship. a famous __5__ of this was the fate of whaler essex, which was sunk __6__ south america early in the last century. more recently, steel ships have had their plates buckled in the same way. sperm whales were known to __7__ the old-time whaleboats in their jaws and crush them. the greatest mystery of whales is their diving ability. the sperm whale __8__ the bottom for his favourite food, the octopus. __9__ he is known to go as far down as 3,200 feet, where the pressure is 1,400 pounds, to the square inch. doing __10__ he will remain submerged as long as one hour. two feats are involved in this : storing up enough __11__ and withstanding the great change in pressure. just __12__ he dose it scientists have not determined. it is believed that some of the oxygen is stored in a special system of blood vessels, rather than just held in the lungs. and __13__ that a special kind of oil in his head is some sort of compensating mechanism that automatically adjusts the internal pressure of his body. but __14__ you cant bring a live whale into the laboratory for study, no one __15__ just how these things work. | 
