The whale - giant of the sea
Media
Part of The Young Citizen: The Magazine for Young People
- Title
- The whale - giant of the sea
- Language
- English
- Year
- 1935
- Subject
- Whales--Juvenile literature.
- Rights
-
- Fulltext
- Th_~ Sky and lhe Slars0 R JON DURING the month of January and February when the sky is dear at night, we see a group of stars right above our hl·ads. This group of stars is called the constellation of O~ion. A constellation is a group of small "'nd big stars. The people living in the country of Greece hundreds of years ago believed that Orion was once a young hunter. He used to spend his time in the forest. One day he saw seven beautiful maidens. They v, ere the daughters of Atlas. Atlas was believed to be the strong man who carried the heavens on his s'lioulders. Orion, the young hunter, ran after the beautiful girls. They were frightened and they fled away crying. But Orion ran faster than they ·were. When he was about to <;vertake them, the goddess Diana changed them into seven white doves. Afterwards she placed them in the sky as seven bright stars. These stars are Pleiades, the daughters of Atlas. In reality, there are c nly six stars in the Pleiades. The seventh, according to the legend, faded away when the city of Troy ~.,·as captured a thousand of years ago. Orion is accompanied on his j.::iurney through the heavens by his dog Sirius. This dog has been alTHE YOUNG CITIZEN February 1985 The Whale-Giant of the Sea Do you know what the biggest living animal is? It is not the carabao, nor the elephant. It is the whale. If you make a whale st,md upright on the ground, its hl'ad will reach the top of a tall coconut tree. Very few of us have seen a real whale. But in some seas in the l'hilippines, this animal is found. It looks like a fish. but scientists Lei! us that it is not. It is called J mammal. Mammals are a group of animals who feed their young with milk. Man is also a mammal. The whale has warm blood, while the fish has not. It has a well-developed brain. If it has lungs instead of gills, w by earl it stay for long periods under water? Because its lungs have become adapted to its present v. ay of living at sea. ' When it nses to the surface, it breathes out the used air in a column of vapor. When the whale is hungry, it swims on the surface of the water with its mouth open. Among the toothless whales, plates of whalebone take the place of the teeth. ~'hen seawater enters its mouth. tiny animals found in the water are drained by this whalebone. These sea creatures are then carried into the stomach of the whale. Imanary meal consists of cuttlefish and other large sea creatures. The most important group among the whales is that of the sperm whale. This whale is over sixty feet long. It is found mainly in tropical waters. In the Philippines dead w.hales have been cast en the shores. Fourid in its big head is a white, waxy substance which is used in making ointments and candles. Another gray substance called ambergris is obtained from the inkstines of the whale. It looks like chewing gum. It may be found floating on the surface of the sea. Jt is mainly used in the making of good perfumes. The makers of perfume pay big sums of money for a small qu.lntity of ambergris. A frw years ago some persons found a large quantity of ambergris near the shores of Mindanao. The oil of the whale is also used for lamp oil. Before petroleum v·as discovered, whale oil was more widely used than now for lighting the interior of houses. gine how many thousands of these Some people believe that whales small living things are needed to will disappear soon from the surfurnish a full meal for this giant face of the earth. Men who want of the sea. to make money from the valuable The toothed whales have a dif- things the what~ gives, kill too ferent kind of food. Their ordi- rriany whales a year. ways faithful to him. Sirius is stellation. ;.lso a star. It is one of the bright~ The constellation of Orion concst. sists of three stars in a straight line. The star on the upper left of These three stars are supposed to Orion is Beelgeuse, and the one on be- the belt of the hunter. the lower right is Rigel. According to the beautiful legend. the goddess Diana killed Orion ·whom she loved. Some say that she killed him, because he made love to Eos, the goddess of the dawn. This goddess is sometimes called Aurora. In her sorrow she placed him <ind his dog Sirius among the conJupiter is the biggest of all the planets. It requires nearly twelve earth years for this great planet to make one revolution round the sun. A man on Jupiter who lives to a hundred will be well over a thousand earth years in age.
- Date Issued
- I(1) February, 1935