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of the
University of Toronto
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EDINB URGTI
Wll.lAZARS .
LONDON, SAMUEL HIGHLEX .V2ELEET STREET.
DUBLIN.W.CURKXJUN? 8.-C?
THE
NATURALIST’S LIBRARY.
EDITED BY
SIR WILLIAM JARDINE, BART.,
F.R.S.E., F L.S., ETC., ETC.
YOL. VII.
MAMMALIA.
WHALES, &c.
BY ROBERT HAMILTON, ESQ., M.D.,
F.R.S.E., M.W.S., ETC.
EDINBURGH:
W. H. LTZARS, 3, ST. JAMES’ SQUARE;
S. HIGHLEY, 32, FLEET STREET, LONDON; AND
W. CURRY, JUN. AND CO., DUBLIN.
1843.
V ;
'
'
-
-
.
ADVERTISEMENT.
It will occur to many of our Readers that the order
of Mammalia, to which the present Volume of the
Naturalist’s Library is devoted, viz. the Cetacea or
the ordinary or fish-like Whales, have some claims
to a place in our series. It is true that these tribes
have none of those rural charms which are con¬
nected with our flocks and herds : and still less can
they attract the eye, as do the rich and golden hues '
. which adorn the humming-bird and paint the wings
of the butterfly; though it will be found that, even
in this respect, they possess a richness and variety
not generally supposed. But leaving this; when
•we consider the singular peculiarities in the consti¬
tution of Whales,—that they are warm-blooded
mammalia, that is to say, that they breathe as the
terrestrial mammalia, and suckle their young, and
yet are as completely aquatic as true fish; and
when, moreover, we reflect that they vary in size
from the dimensions of a salmon to a length of
a
X
ADVERTISEMENT.
upwards of a hundred feet, and a weight of nearly
as many tons;—that some of the genera swarm
beneath the perennial ice of either pole, whilst
others display their glowing hues within the tropics;
and when to this we add, that in the pursuit of
some of them, large navies are annually equipped
by the most enterprising nations, and many a bold
and adventurous seaman perils his life in the arctic
seas, or nearly circumnavigates the globe,—no one
we apprehend can doubt that the present subject is
invested with the highest possible interest.
We have devoted a chapter of this Volume to
the singular structure and economy of the tribe:
and we have then dwelt more particularly upon the
Greenland Whale, upon the adventures and dangers
attendant upon its capture, and on the products
and history of the Northern Whale Fishery. We
have done the same in relation to the Spermaceti
Whale, and concerning the products and peculiari¬
ties of the South Sea Fishery. Nor have we for¬
gotten a larger Whale than either, the Rorqual, in
viewing which we contemplate by far the greatest
giant of all presently-existing creatures. From
these mighty monsters w r e descend to the smaller
kinds, some of which are found in every sea, in¬
cluding the Sea-unicorn and the Grampus, the
Dolphins and Porpoises. These altogether extend
to nearly twenty distinct genera, which have in all
ages peculiarly provoked the curiosity of mankind,
as they continue to do without abatement to the
present day. We have endeavoured, to the full
ADVERTISEMENT.
XI
extent of our limits, to address, both to the eye and
to the mind, all that is reallv known of these crea-
tures, rejecting whatever is erroneous and doubtful,
insisting only on the sober, though not less wonder¬
ful realities of truth, and stimulating and directing
all who may have opportunities to renewed investi¬
gations.
Such are the chief objects of the present Volume;
but it is proper to remind our subscribers that a
portion of the great order Whales still remains un¬
described, and which we found could not have been
at present introduced without doing injustice to their
history. It is therefore proposed ere long to devote
to this other part a second volume, which will com¬
mence with the Herbivorous Cetacea , and in which
we shall also endeavour to trace the reality and
history of a race of huge animals, known under the
popular titles of Mermaids , Sea Serpents , Krakens ,
&c.; and which, while we cannot doubt their exist¬
ence as singular creatures of some kind, we are
totally at a loss what form or nature to attribute to
them; in conclusion, we shall add the history of
the marine carnivora , or the Walrous , Seals , Otories ,
&c.; animals both singular, instructive, and im¬
portant in the commerce of nations.
Our next publication Mali be Vol. I. of the
“ Birds of Western Africa ” by William Swainson,
Esq. This subject will be completed in two vo¬
lumes : the First, devoted to the Birds of Prep and
a portion of the Perching Birds ; the Second, con¬
cluding the Perching Birds , and containing the
Xll ADVERTISEMENT.
Gallinaceous Birds , the Waders , and the Swimmers .
The whole of the Illustrations are taken from
Mr. Swainson’s characteristic drawings, and we
trust it will he perceived that no expense is or will
he spared, to render “ The Library,” in every
department, useful and attractive.
CONTENTS
OF
VOLUME SIXTH,
Memoir of Lacepede ....
• •
PAGE
17
Introduction.
• •
33
Comparative Anatomy of the Cetacea. Plate I.
43
First Genus.— Bal^na ....
The Greenland Whale.
•
76
Balcena Mysticeius. Plate II. .
• •
76
Food of the Whale. Plate III.
• •
87
Northern Whale Fishery . . .
• •
93
Whale breaching, or leaping out of the water.
Plate IV.
113
Whale upsetting a boat. Plate IV *.
Whale of the Southern Seas.
• •
115
Balcena Australis . . .
• •
122
Second Genus.— Rorqualus .
Great Northern Rorqual.
•
125
Rorqualus Borealis . Plate V.
•
125
Skeleton of the Great Northern Rorqual.
The Lesser Rorqual.
Plate VI.
139
Rorqualus Rostratus Plate VII.
Rorqual of the Southern Seas.
•
142
Rorqualus Australis
• •
146
Fossile Rorquals, &c.
• •
150
Third Genus.— Cachalot
• •
154
The Spermaceti Whale from Frith of Forth.
PI. VIII.
154
The Spermaceti Whale of Southern Ocean.
Plate IX.
158
The South Sea Fishery
•
169
Dying Struggles of the Spermaceti Whale.
Plate X.
171
The Heterodons (with few and heterogeneous teeth) 181
XIV
CONTENTS
Fourth Genus.—N arwhalus
The Narwhal, or Sea Unicom. Plate XI. .
Fifth Genus.—D iodons, or Two-teethed Whales
Two-teethed Whale of Desmarest.
Diodon Desmaresti .....
Two-teethed Whale of Sowerby.
Diodon Sowerbi. Plate XII.
Sixth Genus_ Hyperoodontes
Buttle-nosed Whale of Hunter.
Hyperoodon Ilonjloriensis. Plate XIII.
Seventh Genus.—A odons. Toothless Whales
Toothless Whale of Havre.
A. Dalei. Plate XIV.
Eighth Genus_ Ziphius (Fossile)
Zipldus Planirostris .....
The Delphinle (with teeth in both jaws) .
Ninth Genus_ Beluga ....
White Whale.
Beluga. Plate XY. ....
Tenth Genus_ Delphinapterus (Dolphin without
dorsal fin) ......
Delphinapterus Peronii. Plate XYI.
Eleventh Genus_ Globicephalus
The Deductor, or Ca’ing Whale.
Globicephalus Deductor or Melas. Plate XVII.
The Globiceps of Risso.
Globicephalus Rissii. Plate XVIII. .
Fossile Globiceps .....
Twelfth Genus.—P hoc/ENA ....
The Common Porpoise.
Phocasna Communis. Plate XIX. Fig. 1. .
The Porpoise of the Cape of Good Hope.
Phoccena Capensis. Plate XIX. Fig. 2.
The Grampus.
Phoccena Grampus. Plate XX.
PAGE
182
182
191
191
192
194
194
198
198
201
201
202
204
204
210
210
212
oio
219
220
222
222
227
228
CONTENTS. XT
PAGE
The Grey Porpoise.
P. Griseus. Plate XXI. .... 233
The Striped Porpoise.
Phoccena Bivittatus Plate XXII. Fig. 1. . 234
Thirteenth Genus.— Delphinus .... 236
The Common Dolphin.
Delphinus Communis, Plate XXIII. . . 238
Pemetty’s Dolphin.
D. Pemetti. Plate XXIY. .... 244
The Lead-coloured Dolphin.
D. Plumbeus, Plate XXY. Fig. 1. . . . 246
The Bridled Dolphin.
D. Fraenatus. Plate XXY. Fig. 2. . . . 24Z
Dolphin with white mark over the Eye.
Delphinus Superciliosus. Plate XXVI. . . 248
The Funenas of the Chilians.
D. Lunatics. Plate XXII. Fig. 2. . 250
Delphinus Youngii (Fossile) . . . . 251
Fourteenth Genus.— Delphinorhyncus . . 252
Delphinorhyncus of Breda.
D. Brcdanensis. Plate XXVII. . . . 252
Fifteenth Genus.—Soosoo .... * 254
Soosoo of the Ganges. '
S. Gangeticus Plate XXVIII. . . . 254
The Soosoo of M. De Borda (Fossile).
S. Bordaii ....... 257
Sixteenth Genus.— Inia ..... 259
1. of Bolivia.
I. Boliviensis. Plate XXIX. .... 259
Seventeenth Genus.— Oxypterus .... 262
Rhinoceros Whale.
Oxypterus Rhinoceros . . . . . 262
Portrait of M. Le Comte de Lacepede ... 2
Vignette, Title Page. $
In all, Thirty-Two Plates in this Volume.
MEMOIR
OF
M. LE COMTE DE LACEPEDE.
As Le Comte de Lacepede was the author of that
elegant and classical work on the Cetacea, which
for so many years has been the most popular treatise
on the subject, we have thought that we could not
submit to the attention of our readers a more ap¬
propriate biographical memoir than a brief sketch
of this very illustrious and most amiable man.
Bernard-Germain-Etienne de La Yille was
born at Agen on December 26, 1756. He was
descended from a long line of honourable ancestors ;
and his father, Jean Joseph de La Ville, was lieu¬
tenant-general of Senechausee. Lacepede, however,
did not value himself on his extraction, but entered
life with the determination of exhibiting his birth
only by the urbanity of his manners and the upright¬
ness of liis conduct. This resolution he maintained
S
with the most scrupulous uniformity throughout his
chequered history; his politeness was proverbial,
VOL. VI. B
18
MEMOIR OP
whilst it was universally acknowledged that he was
as obliging as he w r as polished, and that he did not
more indulge in compliment than in rendering
important services, and in bestowing substantial
favours. His father superintended his education
with great care, and received valuable assistance
from M. de Cliabannes, the Bishop of Agen; and
it was remarked that during his younger years the
idea of a bad author or of a wicked man scarcely
presented itself to his mind. When twelve years of
age, as he himself stated, he imagined that all poets
resembled Corneille and Racine, that all historians
were like Bossuet, and all moralists like Fenelon.
He had thus from Iris earliest year's a great leaning
to optimism, and would scarcely believe that any one
was actuated by bad feelings or intentions, or that
any one wished to deceive; and this prepossession
had great influence over his conduct and writings,
as w'-ell as on his social liabits.
Buffon’s Natural History was one of those books
which was early put into his hands, and it instantly
became a favourite; it was the companion of Iris
w r alks, and that in one of the finest countries of the
world. It was on the beautiful banks of the lovely
valley of the Garonne, in the neighbourhood of those
smiling hills which are so majestically terminated by
the peaks of the Pyrenees that he studied the elo¬
quent pictures of this great writer: his passion for
the beauties of Nature thus originated at the same
time with his admiration for that great painter who
( printed them out to his contemplation, and these
M. LE COMTE DE LACEPEDE.
19
two sentiments always remained united in liis mind.
He took Buffon for his master and liis model, and
read him till he a lm ost knew him by heart.
About this time the love and cultivation of music
not less strongly took possession of liis mind. His
father and many of his near* relatives were musi¬
cians, and he often joined their concerts. This
art afforded him inexpressible delight, and became
to him a second language, which he could write
and speak with equal facility. Both the airs which
he composed, and the mode of his execution gene¬
rally, were greatly admired. He was often requested
to compose, and ere long he engaged in the labo¬
rious task of an opera; this introduced him to the
acquaintance of the celebrated Gluck, who greatly
admired and cherished his genius.
Natural philosophy also, at this time, formed an
object of his pursuit. At the age of thirteen he
formed, with some of his school-fellows, a juvenile
society, several members of which subsequently
became members of the Institute. Their investiga¬
tions became more important as their years ad¬
vanced; and electricity and magnetism, among other
subjects, engaged their attention. Lacepede having
made some experiments, and deduced conclusions,
which appeared new to him, he transmitted them
to Buffon, who noticed them in the supplements of
his w r ork.
At the age of twenty-one, Lacepede resorted to
Paris, where, on his arrival, he made the formal
acquaintance of his correspondents, Gluck and Buf-
20
MEMOIR OP
fon, by both of whom he .was received in the most
flattering maimer. He closed the day, as he began
it, in a kind of enchantment; he spent the evening
with his relative, the Archbishop of Lyons, where
he met with the elite of the academicians, and from
that time he determined to devote himself to science
and to music. This resolution was scarcely approved
by his family, whose interest might have advanced
him in the army, in the diplomatic line, or at the
bar. In these circumstances, a German prince,
whose acquaintance he made in Paris, offered to
procure him the brevet rank of colonel in one of
the smaller states. This appointment led him to
pay two short visits about this time to Germany,
where he acquired his nominal rank, with his uni¬
form and epaulettes; and his friends being thus
satisfied, he was allowed henceforward to follow the
bent of his inclination.
Lacepede now devoted some years very assidu¬
ously to music. He composed an opera, which,
after being on the eve of performance, was from
some trifling occurrence suppressed. In 1785 he
published a work, in two octavo volumes, La
Poetique de la Musique , which procured him many
admirers, • among whom the great king of Prussia,
Frederick II. was one, and Sacchini another.
Shortly afterwards, Lacepede published two works
on physics; one on Electricity, and the other en¬
titled Physique Gencrale et Particuliere. Neither of
them, though both written with eloquence, procured
the commendation of competent judges; and, after
M. LE COMTE DE LACEPEDE.
21
the lapse of a few years, he was so convinced of
their imperfection, that he used his best exertions
to suppress them.
At this time, Buffon very opportunely opened up
a way by which the Count might usefully exercise his
talents. He proposed that he should continue that
part of his work on Natural History which treated
of animals ; and that he might do so with the
greater advantage, he offered him the situation of
under-demonstrator of the Cabinet du Roi , which
had been just vacated by the younger Dauben-
ton. Lacepede gladly accepted these proposals,
and though some of the attendant duties were
somewhat menial, he discharged them with the
greatest assiduity. He attended in the museum on
public days, and with his accustomed politeness
answered the inquiries of the curious, whether
poor or rich. To many this task might have been
disagreeable, but he did it to please a beloved mas¬
ter, and to fit himself for being his successor, and
these ideas ennobled every thing.
In 1788, some months before the death of Buffon,
Lacepede published the first volume of his History
of Reptiles, which comprehended the oviparous qua¬
drupeds ; and the following year, the second, which
treated of Serpents. These quartos, by the elegance
of their style, and the interest of the numerous facts
they embodied, were judged worthy of the great
work of which they formed the continuation. He
established classes, orders, and genera, and accu¬
rately characterized these divisions; he enumerated
oo
J*J±J
MEMOIR OF
and named the species with care, and as metho¬
dically, though not so philosophically, as Linnaeus
himself. He also described a great number of new
species, raising the number to tw r o hundred and
eighty-eight.
But at this epoch, a great change took place in
the prospects of the young Naturalist, by the oc¬
currence of those great events, wdiich overturned
every thing in France at the Revolution. Power
then became the daily product of popular favour,
and every month saw some great reputation fall,
and some unknown and worthless person start from
obscurity. Many of the celebrated men in France
w r ere at that time invited and drawn in to take a
part in those agitating transactions, and Lacepede,
from his great popularity, had peculiar difficulty in
avoiding them. He was successively chosen presi¬
dent of his section, commander of the national
guard, extraordinary deputy of Agen to the As -
semblee Constituante , member of the general council
of the department of Paris, president of the electors,
deputy of the first legislature, and president of that
assembly. In all these situations he attempted to
act with his habitual kindness; hut that was a sen¬
timent with which, ere long, there was no general
sympathy. One morning, Lacepede saw his name
at the head of an article in the newspaper entitled,
“ list of the Scelerats who vote against the people/’
He had been, and still was slow in thinking that
matters would come to extremities, or that there w r as
any general risk of personal safety; and the good
M. LE COMTE DE LACEPEDE.
23
opinion he entertaine-d of mankind was too deeply
rooted to allow him to suspect that truth and jus¬
tice would not immediately resume the ascendancy.
But, in waiting their return, his friends saw he was
exposing himself to imminent danger; and, almost
by main force, they removed him from the capital.
He had not been long in the country till he longed
to return, and he imagined that nothing would
be more simple than to demand permission from
Robespierre. Happily the monster had that day a
spark of humanity about him, “ He’s in the country?
—he demanded: Tell him to stay there.” It is
certain, an hour’s residence in the metropolis would
have been fatal to him; his retreat was searched
for; and he could not venture to return to Paris
till after the 9th of Thermidor.
He returned with a singular title for a man of
forty, who was already known by so many eminent
w'orks ; it was that of a scholar of the Normal
school. The convention, at last giving up its
cruelties, imagined it might create as speedily as it
had destroyed ; and that, for the re-establishment of
general education, it might in a few weeks educate
masters with the help of a few celebrated men, who
would only require to point out to them the best
methods of proceeding. Fifteen hundred indivi¬
duals were sent, 'with this object in view, from the
departments. M. Lacepede found himself on the
same bench with the celebrated Bougainville, a sep-
tuaginarian, and a general officer, equally famous as a
writer and a mathematician; with the grammarian,
24
MEMOIR OF
Wailly, who had been esteemed as a classical
author for forty years, and with Fourrier. La Place
himself, and this is saying much, appeared in this
strange scene as a scholar; and it was by the side
of such men as these, that there were seated pea¬
sants who could scarcely read. The influence of
these great men was soon felt in society, and was
highly useful in the metropolis.
Lacepede, after his retirement, was not legally a
member of the establishment of the Jardin des
Plants , but scarcely was his name allowed to be
pronounced in Paris, when those who had been
appointed in his absence, urgently invited him to
associate himself with them. For this purpose a
new chair was appointed for him, connected with
the history of Reptiles and Fishes. His lectures
were most successful. A crowd of young men
flocked round him, who, for three or four years, had
been deprived of all instruction, and who were thus
as it were famished. The politeness of the pro¬
fessor, the elegance of his language, the variety of
the ideas and knowledge which he displayed, after
so long an interval of barbarism, introduced as it
were another and a better age. Then it was espe¬
cially that Lacepede assumed, in the public esti¬
mation, the rank of the successor of Buffon; as
in him, in truth, were found many of his distin¬
guishing characteristics : he possessed the same art
of giving interest to the driest details; and when
Baubenton was approaching the termination of his
career, the new professor remained the only re-
M. LE COMTE DE LACEPEDE.
25
preservative of that great association which had
laboured so successfully in the popular field of Na¬
tural History. It was on these accounts he was
called upon to form a part of the nucleus of the
Institute , and was thus one of those who were
charged with the restoration of the Academie des
Sciences. He was also one of its first secretaries,
and his beautiful eloge on Dolomier makes it a
matter of regret that he was raised to higher posts,
from a situation which he would have filled better
than any one else. This statement comes at least
with as much grace as truth from the lips of Cuvier;
who, in the discharge of the duties of the same
office, pronounced the eloge of his predecessor.
Of all the occupations in which M. de Lacepede
had been induced to engage, the sciences alone,
as is usual, remained faithful to him in the time
of misfortune, and it was with them he consoled
himself in his retreat. Resuming the habits of his
youth, passing the day in the midst of the woods
or on the banks of the rivers, he traced his plan
of his Natural History of Fishes, the most im¬
portant of his works. Immediately after his return,
he commenced its composition; and at the end of
two years, in 1798, he found himself in a condition
to publish the first volume. Five volumes appeared
in succession, the last in 1803. All that he could
collect regarding the organization of these animals,
their habits, the wars which the human species
wage against them, and the benefit derived from
them, he has given in a pure and elegant style; he
26
MEMOIR OP
has even diffused a charm over his descriptions,
whenever the beauties, which have been imparted
to them in so high a degree, permitted their being
presented to the admiration of naturalists. “ And
in fact,” says Cuvier, “ what can afford a greater
subject of admiration, than those brilliant colours—
that glare of gold, steel, ruby, and emerald, profusely
poured upon beings which man scarcely ever na¬
turally meets with, and which are almost never
seen in the obscure paths they frequent. Even
at the present day (in 1826), there is no work on
the history of fishes superior to Lacepede’s, and he
is always quoted on the subject: when the immense
materials collected in these latter days shall have been
put together in another work, the brilliant pieces of
colouring, full of sensibilty and deep philosophy,
Math which he has enriched his Work, will not be
forgotten. Science, from its nature, is every hour
advancing; but the great writers will not remain
the less immortal.”
The Natural History of Fishes was followed, in
1804, by that of the Cetacea, which terminates the
great system of vertebrate animals. M. de Lace-
pede considered it as the most perfect of Ills Works ;
and in fact, he treated the historical and descriptive
part, that referring to the organization and metho¬
dical characters, better than any one had done before
him. His style also rises in some manner in propor¬
tion to the grandeur of his subject. He augments,
by about a third, the number of the species. “ This
author,” says Mr. Scorseby, “ has published the most
M. LE COMTE DE LACEPEDE. 27
voluminous and pleasing account of cetaceous animals
that has ever appeared from the press.” He adds,
“ the style is animated and poetical, and his history
is a most interesting work; hut the interest, in
many cases, is augmented at the expense of truth ;
it is by no means accurate.” (Artie, reg. i. 447—9.)
Perfectly agreeing in this criticism, and ascribing the
many inaccuracies to the imperfect state of this very
difficult branch of science at the time of the publi¬
cation, we deem these few words sufficient to put
our readers on their guard, in their perusal of this
interesting production.
After this time M. Lacepede undertook a work
somewhat different in its character; more philoso¬
phical, and less liable to become antiquated by the
rapid progress of science. He designated it a
History of the Ages of Nature , in which he com¬
prehended that of man,—considered in his indivi¬
dual developement, and in that of the race. The
article Homme , in the Diet, cles Sciences Nat ur dies,
is a sort of programme of what he contemplated on
the physical history of our race. The romances
which he wrote,— Ellival and Caroline , and Charles
d’Ellival etAlphonsine de Florentine, —and published
about this time, were considered by him as studies
upon mans moral history. But it was soon ap¬
parent that in the midst of these meditations the
gradual developement of social life had the most
especial charms for him, and the naturalist gradu¬
ally merged into the historian; he dwelt chiefly
upon the political and religious establishments
28
MEMOIR OF
which hare appeared since the fall of the Western
Empire. He left a history of them completed,
and several volumes of this work have now been
published.
Besides these greater works, we find that M.
Lacepede transmitted no fewer than twenty-three
memoirs to the several societies of which he was a
member, and to the respectable periodicals of the
day, principally between the years 1796 and 1808;
the last, On the Cetacea of the Japanese Seas , was in
the year 1818. He also published in 1799 a new
edition of Buffon in fifty-two volumes duodecimo,
and wrote the preface to the Menagerie, in folio, in
1801.
We must now add, that about this period he made
another change from these active literary pursuits to
equally active political engagements. Very soon
after the new government was established, he was
gradually replaced in all the high offices he had pre¬
viously held. He was appointed senator in 1799,
president of the senate in 1801, chancellor of the
legion of honour in 1803, and minister of state in
1804.
In the general administration of the legion of
honour, M. Lacepede conducted himself with the
greatest talent and address, and to the satisfaction
of every one. He likewise exerted himself in esta¬
blishing schools for the education of the orphans of
those who had belonged to the legion, and procured
comfortable accommodation for as many as nearly
fourteen hundred of them.
M. LE COMTE DE LACEPEDE.
29
Lacepede conducted the multifarious affairs in
which he was engaged with a facility and rapidity
which astonished all who were cognizant of it. For
him one or two hours were sufficient to determine
every thing, and with a most intimate knowledge
of all the circumstances. This amazing rapidity
surprised even Napoleon, who himself was much
celebrated for despatch of business. One day this
great man asked him, by what secret he did so
much? to which the other replied,—“ I use the
method employed by naturalistsan answer, which
under the appearance of pleasantry contains much
truth.
Another circumstance which much struck his im¬
perial master, and which he hut rarely witnessed, was
the extreme disinterestedness of Lacepede. This
servant of the public would at first receive no salary;
but, as his benevolence kept pace with his disin¬
terestedness, his patrimony was soon exhausted, and
much debt was contracted, which there was no pros¬
pect of his being able to pay. Under these circum¬
stances, the head of the government insisted upon
his talcing a regular salary, and ordered that all his
arrears should also be paid up. The sole advantage
which he derived from this act of kindness and
justice, was, that it enabled him to increase his
donations, tie considered himself accountable to
the public for all* that he received; and, as he
every day had occasion to see poor legionaries, and
many of their widows, without any means of sub¬
sistence, he had ever before him those who were
30
MEMOIR OF
objects of liis bounty. His liberality usually antici¬
pated their requests, and he often allowed them to
suppose that his private charities flowed from the
public funds. Much he bestowed without the re¬
cipients knowing whence it came. A gentleman
who held a high offlce, having ruined himself by
• speculation, abandoned his family, and Lacepede
caused 500 francs per month to be regularly trans¬
mitted to his wife, till her son was old enough to
support her; and this lady always imagined she
received her income from her husband.
A young man who was employed in one of the
offices under his controul, appeared depressed and
ill. The Count supposed there was some latent
cause of anxiety, and employed his physician to dis¬
cover what it was. Having learned that the young
man’s circumstances were hopelessly embarrassed,
he immediately sent him 10,000 francs : the gentle¬
man hastened to him with tears in his eyes, in-
treating him to fix the terms of reimbursement;—
“ My friend,” he replied, “ I never receive any
tiring of that sort.”
What rendered Iris disinterestedness in every
degree conformable with his munificence, was the
fact, that he had very few personal wants. He had
no expenses but what were required by the situa-
ations which he held. He never possessed more
than one suit at a time. After dressing in the
morning he never changed throughout the day. Ilis
diet was as simple as his clothing. From the age
of seventeen he never drank wine, and a single and
M. LE COMTE DE LACEPEDE. 31
very slight repast was all he required. But what
was most surprising, w r as the small quantity of sleep
he took ; he usually slept two or three hours, and
the rest of the night was employed in composi¬
tion, his memory retaining all the phrases and the
very words; they were as if written in his brain,
and early in the morning he dictated them to his
secretary. He has stated, that in this way he
could retain whole volumes ; could change them as
he saw fit in his mind, and remember what he had
thus corrected, as accurately as the original text.
It was thus that nearly the whole day was free for
business, for his public duties, and especially for the
sweets of the family circle : for his external life, so to
speak, however brilliant, was to him nothing in com¬
parison with his domestic enjoyments, in which he
ever found a delightful solace for all his fatigues and
trials. His attachment to his wife, Anne Caroline
Juba, was beyond all praise; of which a satisfactory
proof may be found in the impassioned language of
the introduction to the Cetacea: “ After I had
commenced this work, misfortune felled me to the
ground, and lacerated my heart; I lost my beloved
companion. Grief without hope,—gratitude,—vene¬
ration,—have inscribed the name of my Caroline on
the dedication of my work on fishes ; and again in
this work ; and they will consecrate all those I may
undertake, till the end of my fearful banishment!
Her name, which is dear to every virtuous and ten¬
der heart, will recommend my feeble efforts to the
lovers of nature.” (Le 24 Nivose, An. 12—1804.J
32
MEMOIR OF, ETC.
Many years afterwards he lost his only daughter,
the wife of his adopted son; and immediately after
this shock, he was hinself seized with the small¬
pox. In this last illness, almost the only one he
had experienced during a life of seventy years, he
continued remarkably to exhibit how much amia¬
bility and unalterable politeness were inherent in
his nature. Not a word escaped him to show his
sense of danger, though he apprehended death from
the first moment of his seizure. He died on the
6th of October, 1825.
On the day of his funeral, the crowd, many
of them unfortunate and miserable, who came to
weep over his tomb, was the best proof of his
liberality and benevolence: and these virtues are
not less distinctly proclaimed by the fact, that, after
having long filled the most eminent situations, and
having enjoyed, for ten years, the especial favour of
the great Arbiter of Europe, the fortune w r hich he
left was much less than that which he had inherited
from his father.
CETACEA.
INTRODUCTION.
The present Volume of the Naturalist’s Library
is dedicated to an order of animals, which in point
of interest yields to none presented to our contem¬
plation in the whole range of animated nature.
The monarch of the deep is, in regard of dimen¬
sions at least, the monarch also of creation ; the
largest and most formidable of land animals shrink¬
ing into utter insignificance when brought into com¬
parison with his prodigious hulk. The vast and
expensive preparations which are made for the cap¬
ture of the whale, and the excitement and perils
attendant upon the adventure, not only render it an
object of great commercial importance, hut throw
around it an air of something like chivalrous in¬
terest, in which every one must instinctively par¬
ticipate. But the main interest of our subject is to
be found in its scientific investigation. If we pass
from mere ignorant wonder to comprehensive and
accurate observation, we shall find in this order of
animals ample materials for exciting and gratifying
yol. vi. c
34 INTRODUCTION.
/
the most enlightened curiosity, for expanding in no
common degree, our conceptions of the harmony
and beauty of the works of nature, and for raising
to the highest pitch our admiration of the inex¬
haustible wisdom of the great Creator.
The very position which the Cetacea occupy in
the animal kingdom, forms in itself a subject of the
deepest wonder and astonishment.
Our readers are probably aware that of the four
divisions into which Cuvier, the great master of
natural science, has divided the animal kingdom,
the first consists of the vertebrate. The verte¬
brate, which include the animals of the most perfect
structure, are again subdivided into four great
classes, forming a natural descending series beauti¬
fully simple and complete ; being 1st, Mammalia or
Quadrupeds,—2dly, Birds,—3dly, Reptiles,—and
4thly, Fishes. Each of these classes is characterized
by a diversity of locomotive powers, which depends
on the quantity of inspiration, inasmuch as this is
the grand source whence the muscular system de¬
rives its irritability and strength. The efficiency of
respiration again, depends upon the relative amount
of blood which is forced into the respiratory organs
in a given space of time, and the relative amount of
oxygen which operates upon the circulating fluid.
Now, the respiratory organs in the first class of the
vertebrate, viz. the Mammalia, are of the most
perfect kind, and perform their functions under
very favourable circumstances, — the circulating
fluid, at each inspiration, being brought into im-
INTRODUCTION.
35
mediate contact with the oxygen of the air. Tl^e
same is true in a still higher degree respecting
birds. But the case is widely different with the
two remaining classes. ' In reptiles the respiratory
organs are themselves greatly deficient, compared
with the same organs in the two higher classes;
and in fishes the difference is still more conspi¬
cuous, inasmuch as they have no lungs at all, but
gills, which execute their functions through the
medium of water, their blood being thus acted
upon only by the portion of oxygen which is con¬
tained in that fluid. From this diversity of struc¬
ture results, in the words of Cuvier, “ the four
different kinds of motion for which the four classes
of vertebrated animals are more particularly de¬
signed, quadrupeds, birds,” &c.
Many specific characters distinguish these four
classes of the vertebrates from each other, and espe¬
cially the two which constitute the extremes, viz.
quadrupeds and fishes. The former are viviparous
in their mode of reproduction, and suckle their
young; which circumstance being peculiar to this
division, they hence derive their ordinary appella¬
tion of Mammalia; a distinction the surest, as
well as the most apparent, of all external charac¬
ters. The latter again are oviparous, and deposit
the countless millions of their spawn in the shel¬
tered creek or the shallow brook. Quadrupeds
are warm-blooded animals, having lungs contained
in a regular chest, and are more or less covered
with hair or wool to protect them from change of
3(3
INTRODUCTION.
temperature; but fishes are cold-blooded, and their
respiration is effected by branchiae, which consist of
laminae, suspended on arches, between the head
and body, through which the water entering by
the mouth is allowed to escape, and so purifies the
blood for renewed circulation. On their surface
scales almost invariably take the place of the warm
and woolly covering: and finally, for it is unneces¬
sary to carry the distinction farther, the former, as
their name implies, move upon the earth with a
firm tread, endowed with two limbs belonging to
the anterior, and two to the posterior extremity;
whilst fish are totally deprived of these, their only
representatives being the fins, and they effect their
movements through the liquid element mainly by
means of their tail striking the water vertically and
alternately from right to left.
These general observations will suffice to enable
our readers to understand distinctly the singular
position which is occupied by the Cetacea in the
classification of the animal kingdom. While they
inhabit the water like fishes, and while in their
mode of progression through their common ele¬
ment and in some of their more obvious external
characters, they seem to claim kindred with the
other inhabitants of the deep, yet, in every essen¬
tial respect, they are unequivocally marked as
members not of this the fourth and last class, but of
the first and most remote class of the vertebratae, viz.
the Mammalia. Fish, as we have seen, are produced
from spawn, and after the lapse of weeks or months,
INTRODUCTION.
37
emerge from the gravel and the egg, where they
had lain long neglected by the individuals who
there deposited and deserted them; hut the whales
are brought alive into the world, and the cub is
nourished for months by its mother’s milk, and
disports itself around her in playful affection,
like the fawn or the lamb in the sunny glade.
Fish are cold-blooded—their circulating fluid being
only exposed to the water, in the gills; but the
whale has no gills, nor any thing resembling them ;
on the contrary, it has true lungs, in a great bony
chest, into which the air is freely admitted—not
indeed by the mouth, but by a peculiar apparatus
to be afterwards explained, and through which the
animal breathes the pure air of heaven like other
mammalia, and is thus enabled to maintain the warm
temperature of its body even in the midst of the
icy seas. Fish never breathe ; and if removed
from the water, and brought into the air, imme¬
diately die; whereas the Cetacea, if deprived of air
and confined under water, are speedily and literally
drowned.
The Cetas, therefore, are not fishes, but true
mammalia. Not only in their internal organization,
but, to a great extent, in their osseous structure,
they approximate to the quadrupeds or the mam¬
malia of the land; and it is not a little interesting
to trace the wonderful adaptations by which an
animal of such a structure and habit of body is
fitted to become the inhabitant of a different element.
Before we proceed, accordingly, to introduce the va-
38
INTRODUCTION.
rious genera to the notice of our readers, we pro¬
pose to devote a chapter to the comparative anatomy
of the order generally. By so doing we shall not
only make our readers acquainted with the object of
their study more effectually than it would be possible
to do by any other means, but we shall prepare
them for marking intelligently the specific differ¬
ences which we shall have occasion to point out as
we advance in our survey.
The classification which we have adopted with
the view of exhibiting and treating the various
species composing the Cetacea, will appear as we
proceed. The series comprises a great variety of
animals, descending from the greater whales to those
of smaller dimensions, down to the porpoises and
dolphins, some of which are not more than two feet
in length.
The fossile Cette which have been discovered
form an interesting addition to the subject of our
investigation. The examination and classification
of these remains was one of the latest and most
successful labours of the illustrious Cuvier, who
informs us that the fossile marine mammalia, whose
species it has been possible to characterise, are not
less different from those which now inhabit our
coasts, than are the terrestrial fossile mammifene
distinct from those which now inhabit the land;
and for some of them, he has been even under the
neccessity of establishing entirely new genera. This,
he adds, “ only more and more confirms the pro¬
position to which the examination of fossile shells
INTRODUCTION.
39
had already led, that it is not land animals only
which have undergone a change during the revolu¬
tions of the globe; but that the inhabitants of the
ocean likewise, have not withstood their effects ;
and that when the sea formed on our continents
those prodigious deposits filled with shells which
are now almost unknown, the great mammalia which
it nourished were not those which people it at
present; and that in spite of the strength which the
immensity of their size apparently conferred upon
them, they had no more power to resist the catas-
trophies which disturbed their element, than had
the elephant, the rhinoceroses, the hippopotami, &c.
to withstand those upon land; and that in the
absence of the arts of man, which, of course, could
not be brought to bear against them, their races
must have been exterminated by the general revo¬
lutions of nature alone.” (Oss. Foss. v. 398.) Many
of the fossile varieties will be incorporated into our
Survey, each being introduced in connexion with
those genera and species with which it stands most
nearly allied.
We must not conceal from our readers that the
ascertainment and description of the existing Ce¬
tacea is a work of great difficulty and uncertainty.—
“ It is,” says Cuvier, “ concerning large animals that
the greatest errors and confusion exists; and for this
reason, that we can know and distinguish only those
species which we can examine under our eye and
carefully compare with each other; and this remark
applies especially to the great Cetacea. They as-
40
INTRODUCTION.
tonish every one by the immensity of their di¬
mensions, and their capture has for ages given
employment to unwearied efforts of activity and
courage; hut except under favourable circumstances,
when occasionally stranded near some intelligent
naturalist, they have scarcely ever been described
with accuracy, and still less been minutely examined.
Thousands of mariners have captured and cut up
whales, who have never accurately examined one of
them; and yet it is upon their vague descriptions and
figures that zoologists have endeavoured to establish
the natural history of these animals. The greater
number of authors, moreover, have never endea¬
voured to exercise their critical powers in their
compilations, inasmuch as they had but few ascer¬
tained facts as the basis of their reasonings. This is
the true cause why the history of the Cetacea is so
meagre, and yet so full of contradiction and repeti¬
tion. It would be truly an easy matter, by availing
ourselves of the extraordinary figures which have
been depicted, but which are the mere creatures of
imagination and recollection, and also of the many
confused and mutilated descriptions which have
been published, and by accumulating synonyms
which are mere copies of each other, to display long
lists of species, but they would have no real existence
in nature, and would altogether vanish before the
slightest breath of criticism.”
It may tend in some degree to illustrate the diffi¬
culties which are here so ably noticed, and to demon¬
strate their almost incredible extent, to state what
INTRODUCTION.
41
has long been asserted, and never denied, that not¬
withstanding thousands of the Greenland whale
have been annually captured by the subjects of many
different nations, there never was an accurate repre¬
sentation of this species till it w r as supplied in 1809
by our illustrious countryman, Scorseby ; and he, in
his valuable work on the Arctic Regions, published
‘ in 1820, states that Lacepede’s figure of the true
whale has not its counterpart in nature ; and that
his common narwhal never had any real existence.
It is worthy of remark, that Lacepede’s interesting
production has for long been the most popular
treatise on the subject; and we regret to see that
some of its worst errors of representation and de¬
scription have been copied into more recent works.
Some of the figures, in these popular treatises, are
no more like the animals they are meant to repre¬
sent, than a bull-dog is like a greyhound. Nor are
the errors confined to the figure. They extend to
whole genera. Loose and vague accounts of voyagers
having been once incorporated into systematic works,
an almost inextricable confusion has been introduced,
which extorted from the capacious mind of Cuvier
the exclamation,— 44 Toutes ces indications incom¬
plete ne serve cju’ a metre les naturalists a la torture
and a man must himself go over the ground before
he can feel the full force of the sentiment. Lesson
gave utterance to his feelings on the point, in these
words,— 44 What an impenetrable veil covers our
knowledge of Cetacea! Groping in the dark, we
advance in a field strewed with thorns.” There
42
INTRODUCTION.
is doubtless then, to use the words of Scorseby, no
branch of zoology so much involved as that which
is entitled Cetology. Some idea of its difficulties
may be formed, by considering that although Des-
maret, in his Mammalogie (1820-22), enumerated
sixty-two species, yet he considered no fewer than
twenty-nine of them as doubtful and not established;
and that Lesson, in 1828, out of eighty-four species
which he classified, can vouch for the accuracy and
existence of not more than fifty.
We have thought it necessary to apprize the stu¬
dent, in these few words, of the difficulties in which
the subject is even now involved, that he may per¬
ceive it is no easy matter at once to overcome them.
From the grea’t rarity of favourable opportunties
for examination, we must be cautious even in getting
right ; and must hesitate ere we finally reject what
has previously been admitted even on insufficient
and objectionable grounds. Having said this much,
we entirely dismiss this part of the subject. We
indulge the hope, that our little Volume may be¬
come a vade mecum to many a mariner and fisher¬
man, and that beguiling over it the tedium of a sea
voyage, he may thereby be excited to improve some
of those opportunities which frequently present
themselves to him, though not to us; and that by
making pertinent and judicious observations, he
may thus add to the stock of our interesting and
important information.
We now proceed to the comparative anatomy of
the Cetacea.
to tro /it p. 43
PLATE I .
Zncoy sc
43
COMPARATIVE ANATOMY
OF THE
CETACEA.
It has been well remarked, that the most useful
and ennobling view of natural history is unques¬
tionably that which gives the most exalted con¬
ception of the wisdom, goodness, and power of the
Creator: and the branch of natural history best
calculated to assist in tracing the works of nature
up to nature’s God, is probably the physiology
of animals. When we bear in mind that the
Cetacea are mammalia, and yet inhabitants of the
mighty deep, we may safely conclude that the
mechanism displayed in the adaptation of their
structure to their exigencies will superabound in ex¬
quisite design and infinite wisdom. Even externally,
the changes which they undergo are interesting.
The extremities are curiously and greatly modified.
The upper is converted from an arm or fore foot
into a fin, or swimming paw, as it is more accurately
called; and though at first glance the difference
between these two appears immense, yet when we
examine their osseous structure, the real coincidence
44
COMPARATIVE ANATOMY
is truly striking. The sketches a and b , in Plate i.,
exhibit this paw in one of the herbivorous and in
one x>f the ordinary Cetacea, when covered with
their usual integuments, and c and d exhibit the
same part when deprived of these appurtenances;
both of these can easily be compared wfith the
human arm, e, and the simple unity of their struc¬
ture, and the peculiar adaptation of each to its
function, will, after this survey, scarcely require
farther demonstration. We supply a sketch of the
same part in the great whale of Greenland; and it
is striking to observe, how much even this great fin
supplies a representation of the osteology of the arm
in man. And as with the anterior extremities, so
it is with the posterior or sacral. In the whole
Cetacea they become wholly rudimental, and leave
scarcely a trace behind. The progress of the change,
as seen externally, which w r e exhibit through three
successive links of the animal series, is beautiful
and interesting; sketch f shows them in the am¬
phibia—the seal ; sketch (/, in the herbivorous
Cetacea—the Dugong of the East Indies; and
OF THE CETACEA. 45
sketch h, in the ordinary Cetacea, as in the common
porpoise
As already remarked, the tail of the Cetacea is
peculiar; not vertical, as in fishes, but horizontal;
by which great facility is given for their ascent to
the surface, to which they must regularly resort for
the discharge of the essential act of respiration.
The agility of the lesser species, which they owe
mainly to the tail, is universally known, and so
powerful is it even in the most gigantic varieties,
that by its means they frequently force themselves
, entirely out of the water. This instrument of pro¬
digious power is formed by a concentration of the
muscles and tendons on all sides of the vertebral
column. Mr. Hunter remarks, that the mode in
which the tail is constructed is, perhaps, as beauti¬
ful as to mechanism as any part of the animal;
being principally composed of three layers of tendi¬
nous fibres. It comprises, in the larger species, in a
single surface, from eighty to one hundred square
feet: its length is only five or six, but its width is
from eighteen to twenty-six. In its form it is flat
and semilunar; its motions are rapid and universal;
its strength immense. It is nearly the sole instru¬
ment of defence as well as of motion. The greatest
velocity is produced by powerful strokes against
the water impressed alternately upwards and down¬
wards, but a slower motion is produced by cutting
the water laterally and obliquely downwards, in
a similar manner as a boat is forced along by a
single oar in the operation of skulling. So rapid
46
COMPARATIVE ANATOMY
is the progress of the order generally, that they
not inappropriately have been denominated the
birds of the sea. The fins again are generally
stretched out in a horizontal position; and their
chief application seems to be the balancing the
animal; as the moment life is extinct it falls over
upon its back. They appear also to be used in
bearing off their young, and in turning and giving
a direction to the velocity produced by the tail.
But not only must the Cetacea regularly resort to
the surface; it is a fact that they also descend into
the unfathomable depths of the ocean, and then be¬
come exposed to a pressure which it is not easy to
conceive, but which forces water through the pores
of the hardest wood, so as to make it ever after¬
wards sink like lead in the abyss. Whales, there¬
fore, must be prepared to resist this pressure; and
the integuments, though soft and flexible like the
finest velvet, are so curiously constructed as to
enable them effectually to do so. These, as in
most other animals, are composed of three parts;
1st, Of the epidermis or scarf-skin, which in addi¬
tion to its great smoothness, is remarkable for being-
covered with a mucous oily fluid, which exudes
from the whole surface, though in a manner diffe¬
rent from what we observe in fishes, which renders
it remarkably slippery, and opposes every thing
like maceration in water; 2dly, Of the rets mu-
cosum, as it is called, which confers colour on
the negroe and in all races of man, and also dis¬
tinctly in the whale tribe. Then succeeds, 3dly, ac-
OP THE CETACEA.
47
cording to the common account, first the true skin,
and then the lard or blubber ; the former is repre¬
sented as thick and strong, and the latter is held to
correspond with the subcutaneous fat in other ani¬
mals. This is the view that naturalists generally,
influenced probably by analogy, have taken; it is
the view taken by Ray, Tyson, Pennant, Hunter,
Scorseby, Cuvier, &c. But we believe, that accord¬
ing to this account, the great peculiarity of the struc¬
ture is disregarded, and the essential character, so
much desiderated, is overlooked. According to Pro¬
fessor Jacob of Dublin, there is no distinction be¬
tween the true skin and the blubber, and the whole
is nothing more than modified skin. But he shall
speak for himself, u That structure in which the
oil is deposited, denominated blubber, is the true
skin of the animal, modified certainly for the pur¬
pose of holding this fluid oil, but still being the true
skin. Upon close examination it is found to con¬
sist of an interlacement of fibres crossing each other
in every direction as in common skin, but more open
in texture, to leave room for the oil. Taking the hog
as an example of an animal covered with an external
layer of fat, we find that we can raise the true skin
without any difficulty, leaving a thick layer of cel¬
lular membrane, loaded with fat, of the same nature
as that in the other parts of the body; on the con¬
trary, in the whale it is altogether impossible to raise
any layer of skin distinct from the rest of the blubber,
however thick it may be; and in flensing a whale,
the operator removes this blubber or skin from the
48
COMPARATIVE ANATOMY
muscular parts beneath, merely dividing with his
spade the connecting cellular membrane.” (Dublin
Phil. Journ. vol. i. 356.) Without prosecuting
this point farther, we can only in a word say, that
we doubt not that this is the more correct view,
which, by the by, had previously been maintained
both by Pallas and by Professor Giesecki; and it is
interesting to see how, in the productions of nature,
often apparently the smallest possible alteration
effects the most wonderful change. This is very
conspicuous here. A soft wrapper of fat, though
double in thickness to that usually found in the
Cetacea, could not have resisted the superincumbent
pressure; whereas, by its being a modification of
the skin, always firm and elastic, and, in this case,
being never less than several inches, and some¬
times between one and two feet thick, it operates
like so much caoutchic, possessing a density and
resistance which the more it is pressed it resists the
more.
Other uses of this peculiarity of the skin wall
readily suggest themselves to the readers mind.
The order is warm blooded, and yet is exposed to
the keenest cold in the deepest recesses of the
frozen seas. Hence this wrapper, or blanket, as
it has been appropriately called, being a bad con¬
ductor of caloric, will at once resist the surrounding
cold and retain the animal heat. On this account
alone, such an integument seems essential; its
bulk and quantity is enormous, sometimes weighing
thirty tons, which might appear sufficient to over-
/
OF THE CETACEA. 49
whelm the animal, and yet from being specifically
lighter than the waters of the ocean, instead of
oppressing, it buoys it up, and makes it relatively
lighter, and so more active.
The flesh or muscles of the Cetacea is not so
much like that of fish as like that of beasts, more
especially the stronger, such as the bull or horse;
it is firm and, with some exceptions, coarse. The
same remark may he made respecting their osseous
structure ; in colour and solidity the hones resemble
those of quadrupeds, though somewhat less compact;
and they have no medullary cavity. The mammae
in the herbivorous Cetacea are pectoral; in the
ordinary, abdominal. Their milk is stated to be
very rich, and according to Messrs. Jenner and
Ludlow, is like cow’s milk to which cream has been
added. (J. Hunter , in Phil. Trans, vol. lxxvii.446.)
The internal structure is very much on the same
model as that of the other mammalia, and this
therefore is a sufficient reason for our not dilating
upon it. Some differences, however, arise from the
peculiarity of their circumstances, and on these we
shall slightly touch.
No circumstance connected with the economy of
whales is more extraordinary than the long period
during which they can suspend the vital function of
respiration. In most of the mammalia the inhala¬
tions succeed each other with great rapidity, and
cannot be suspended for more than a few instants.
In man, for example, even when at rest, they occur
every three seconds; whilst this interval in the Ce~
VOL. VI. D
50
COMPARATIVE ANATOMY
tacea is augmented many hundred and even thou¬
sand-fold ; for it is a fact, that the larger genera will
remain an hour, and sometimes nearer two, under
water. There must then he some essential pecu¬
liarity in their organization, to account for this ex¬
traordinary phenomenon; and yet we know not that
any regular attempt at explanation has hitherto been
made. It is with considerable hesitation, therefore,
that we offer the following brief hints upon the
point.
Respiration is in a great degree subservient to the
circulation of the blood: the stimulus to inspiration
is the accumulation of this fluid in the lungs, which
when purified proceeds to the heart, whence it is
propelled through the frame for the purposes of se¬
cretion, &c.; after which it is again received into
the veins, where it assumes its venous aspect, and
is deprived of its arterial character. The circle thus
described in man and the mammalia generally, is,
so to speak, continuous and simple. In the Cetacea,
however, it is not so; for in them the arterial
portion, instead of being a simple and direct course
to the venous, is complicated by the addition of a
structure which we believe is peculiar to this order,
and which is nothing less than a grand reservoir
for the reception of a great quantity of arterial
blood, which, as occasion requires, is emptied into
the general circulation, and thus, for a time at
least, supercedes the necessity of respiration.
This structure was first noticed by John Hunter,
and with his usual minute accuracy; Dr. Barclay
OF THE CETACEA.
51
then described it as existing within the spinal canal
of the white whale; more lately, Dr. Knox has
observed it within the cranial cavity itself; whilst
Messrs. Desmoulins and Breschet have noticed it in
France. In a few words, we may describe it as a
great irregular reservoir of arterial blood, contained
within a plexus of arteries, deriving its blood from
the vessels near the heart, which lines a large por¬
tion of the interior of the chest, insinuating itself
between the ribs, forming a great cushion external
to them near the spine, and also within the spinal
canal and the cranium itself. Now it is this struc¬
ture which we believe has been, and which we
would venture again to adduce, as offering a satis¬
factory explanation of the extraordinary fact under
review. None of the authors named above have
associated this remarkable structure with the no
less remarkable phenomenon*; nor have they as¬
signed any other use to it. It would appear that
these great vessels, or cylinders, as Mr. Hunter calls
them, do not communicate directly with veins;
nor are they formed of ramifications which commu-
* Since writing the above, we have met with M. Dumeril’s
Report (Ann. des Sc. Nat., 1834) of M. Breschet’s Paper on
the Vascular System of the Cetacea, which bears the title of
a Discovery in the Circulation, affecting the respiration of this
order. We have in vain attempted to procure the Memoir
itself. It was on the testimony of the Cyclopedia of Ana¬
tomy and Physiology for May, 1836, p. 577, that we stated
that Mr. B.’s memoir contained “ no facts or physiological
inferences additional to M. Hunter’s paper.” The discovery
as to the structure is certainly and clearly no discovery at all;
but it appears to us that M. Breschet has the merit of first
assigning to it its true and very important use.
COMPARATIVE ANATOMY
no
\>+J
nicate freely with each other, hut each may he
followed to a great extent, and unravelled, as if
twisted upon itself; and, upon the whole, we are
free to allow that the suggestion of its use above
afforded, presents itself to our view, as alike plau¬
sible, simple, and satisfactory.
Mr. Hunter moreover remarked that the quan¬
tity of blood belonging to the whale tribe is pro¬
portionally very large, a circumstance which this
reservoir at once explains; and M. Desmoulins
states, that in the Cetacea the blood is at a higher
temperature than in the terrestrial mammalia, rising
as high as 104°. (Diet. Class. d’Hist. Nat.) Re¬
specting the Lungs , J. Hunter has also observed
that they are more than usually elastic; the pulmo¬
nary cells, too, are unusually small, and communi¬
cate with each other in a way that is not generally
seen, for by blowing into one branch of the trachea,
not only the lobe to which the air directly goes,
but the whole lungs, are inflated. (76. 418.)
When we reflect, that in the Cetacea, respiration
is carried on through the lungs, and that they
inhabit the ocean, we shall at once perceive that a
peculiar apparatus must be provided for the per¬
formance of this function. They have no nostrils,
accurately so called, and their mouths are seldom
opened in free air, and therefore the process is
carried on by tubes which open on the summit
of their head, and which are called the blow-holes
or spiracles. In man and the other mammalia,
the mouth and nostrils, as every one knows, termi-
OF THE CETACEA.
53
nate posteriorly in a common pouch or hag, called
the pharynx, from which both the windpipe and
gullet take their origin; the former, and anterior,
through an aperture called the glottis, which is
covered by the epiglottis as a valve, which usually
stands erect, but upon the passing of a morsel, shuts
down like a lid, and so leaves a free passage for
the food. In the Cetacea the spiracles admit free
ingress and egress of air into and from the lungs;
but as the mouth is at the same time usually filled
with water, some mechanism must be provided to
prevent it from rushing into these organs. The
peculiarity then commences at this point. The
epiglottis, instead of being a simple and usually
unshut lid, forms in some of the Cetacea the anterior
rim of the rima or slit, and in others encloses these
parts at their base, and assists them in fonning a
projecting tube or canal. In this particular there
is great variety in the individual species; and, as a
sample merely, we refer to sketches i and k, which
exhibit the larynx in the common dolphin as
sketched in the Encyclop. Metkodique , and in the sea
unicorn, as represented by Dr. Fleming; in both of
which it will be seen that the rima glottidis is on
the summit of a projecting cone or pyramid. This
is received into the lower end of the blowi ng-tube,
wdiich is a circular aperture, surrounded with a
strong sphincter muscle which includes the glottis
in its grasp, thus uniting the windpipe and the
blow-tube, which cross the fauces or swallow, and
divide it into two passages. In some of the species
54
COMPARATIVE ANATOMY
there is an enlargement at the projecting end of
the glottis, which would seem intended to prevent
its retractation ; but this peculiarity does not exist
in others. The union of the glottis with the lower
aperture of the tube makes a kind of joint to admit
of motion, and of dilatation and contraction in the
floating palate, in swallowing, owing to the glottis
moving more into or out of the tube. Immediately
above the lower aperture, the tube becomes consider¬
ably larger, and proceeds upwards and forwards,
through the bones and soft parts, till it reaches the
summit of the head. The tube is usually divided
by a septum into two canals, which in the first sub¬
division of the ordinary Cetacea open by two blow¬
holes, whilst in the second the septum ceases, and
the tube terminates as it begins, by a single aperture.
The whole of this singular mechanism is peculiar to
the Cetacea. The other mammalia, when feeding,
reside in a medium which, by means of their respi¬
ratory organs becomes the pabulum mice , whilst the
Cetm in procuring sustinence are habitually under
water, which were it to find entrance into their
lungs, would prove as noxious as in man; and yet
by a slight alteration in a few cartilages at the top
of the windpipe, and in the direction of the air
tubes, their feeding in the deep ocean is made as
safe for them as that of the others in the balmy
breeze.
Regarding the voice of this order, it would ap¬
pear that we have not yet arrived at any definite
conclusion. Mr. Scorseby states of the Greenland
OF THE CETACEA.
55
whale that <e whales hare no voiceand this is
generally applied to all the other species. There is,
however, a difficulty in adopting this conclusion,
from the amount of testimony which affirms that
they hellow loudly, under certain circumstances.
In proof of this we do not go hack to such state¬
ments as Anderson’s concerning the rorqual, or to
the Abbe Lecoz’s regarding the sperm whale, or to
the older voyagers, who often state that they heard
them utter terrible cries, hut we shall come to more
recent occurrences. In January 1812, some fishers
of Paimpol observing a number of small whales of
the porpoise genus at some distance from shore,
supplied themselves with arms and gave chase, en¬
deavouring to drive them towards the shore. They
succeeded in frightening them, and hunted one of
the smallest of them from the deep. When stranded
in shallow water it began to utter cries, which
speedily brought others, among the first of which
its mother was supposed to be one. She, however,
w T as accompanied with many; the cries were aug¬
mented according as the number of those in peril
was increased, and finally they all, to the number of
seventy, violently precipitated themselves among the
shallows and were taken. Cuvier, who received the
details of this occurrence and published them (Ann.
du Museum , tom. xix. 1.), subjoins the following
remark : “ As to their power of uttering cries and
bellowings, more or less acute, we cannot, after the
assertions which have been made by those who
heard them, any longer entertain a doubt.” Is it
56
COMPARATIVE ANATOMY
not from this power of uttering cries, that the Melos
of Dr. Trail has received the popular name of
caing , that is calling v T hale? The statements of
the fishermen regarding it entirely agree with what
has just been stated respecting the Griseus , viz.
that no sooner is one of their numerous flocks in
danger of being stranded, than it utters vehement
cries, w r hich being heard by the rest, they come to
its relief, and usually share its dangers. We shall
add another and not less pertinent statement on the
respectable authority of Orbigny, regarding some
animals stranded on the coast of La Vendee in
1822. “ In the month of June many of the inhabi¬
tants of Aiguillon were aroused at eleven p. m. by a
dreadful noise which apparently proceeded from the
sea-shore, and which they compared to the bellowing
of a hundred bulls. Some of the most courageous
among them went to discover what it was ; but, ter¬
rified with the extraordinary noise, more appalling
during the silence of night, and increased by heavy
blows on the land and sea, they returned to their
homes. When day appeared they saw four great
animals (it was thought there had been others)
struggling with death, and uttering frightful cries.”
Is it, we would enquire, that this noise is wholly
connected with the blowing apparatus, or may not
these Cetacea, in the circumstances stated, have
produced it through the windpipe and mouth, an¬
swering to the voice in other mammalia ? But, how¬
ever this may be, a still more important point is
brought by the circumstance under consideration.
OF THE CETACEA.
57
If in any way they can produce a loud noise in air,
what is to hinder them from doing the same under
water ? And if they have this faculty at all, then,
according to well known accoustic principles, would
not the sound he heard better, and conveyed farther
than in air; and would not this satisfactorily explain
the fact so often stated, that they have some myste¬
rious mode of intercommunication under water, to
the extent in the sperm whale, according to Beale,
of four, five, and even seven miles, of which no
explanation, so far as we know, has hitherto been
attempted ? We venture to throw out this idea for
the consideration of those who have better oppor¬
tunities of judging than ourselves. It would pro¬
bably require a more minute knowledge of the wind¬
pipe and neighbouring parts, ere we can minutely
explain the mode in which these cries are uttered,
and this voice, so to call it, exerted.
We need scarcely remark, that it is the apparatus
above alluded to that has procured for the order the
popular name of blowers , which is applicable to all the
ordinary Cetae. Their spoutings or jets cl'eau , as they
have been called, are heard as well as seen at a
great distance, as much as two and three miles, and
rise sometimes as high as twenty or thirty feet. It
was for long supposed that this appearance was
chiefly owing to the water which they take in with
their food, and which, if swallowed, would only op¬
press them. But in opposition to this, it has more
recently been maintained, that the proper egress of
the water is the same as its ingress, and that by
58
COMPARATIVE ANATOMY
contracting the surrounding muscles, the throat and
mouth can easily be cleared of the fluid. The spi¬
racles, moreover, have a secretion peculiar to them¬
selves ; and it is now the fashionable opinion among
naturalists, that it is especially this secretion, toge¬
ther with the superfluous vapour of the lungs, which,
along with the expired breath, forms the proper
substance of the projected column. This is the
opinion maintained, among others, by Scorseby and
Blainville, certainly weighty names. Notwithstand¬
ing this, we venture to express doubts whether
the point is either definitely or satisfactorily esta¬
blished. It would appear there is an allowed dif¬
ficulty, arising from the great quantity of the fluid
frequently expelled ; which is met by the statement,
that sometimes the ejected air comes in contact with
some supernatant water, and raises quantities along
with it. With a perfect cognizance of these opinions,
however, we find that M. Lesson, from much per¬
sonal observation, dissents from this opinion, and,
as late as 1828, maintains the old and now often
scouted explanation. He states that, from having
often seen the phenomenon, and frequently within
the distance of a few yards, he feels constrained to
oppose the prevailing view. He observes of the
sperm whale, that when only breathing, and not
feeding, it has no jets at all; and that, when feeding
and taking in water, it then expels some through its
spiracles, though to no great height; whilst in other
whales, the projected column long retains the appear¬
ance of a united stream, mounting high before it
OF THE CETACEA.
59
falls down again in a shower. ( Cetaces , 308.)
Amidst these conflicting statements we are the less
surprised to find another opinion which embraces, if
it does not quite reconcile, the other two. Thus
Quoy and Gaimard, though theyagree with Scorseby,
that possibly no water may sometimes be expelled
during expiration, yet having often observed that
during stormy weather the jets took place both
more frequently and more abundantly, account for
the fact on the supposition, that as it is then that
the Cetacea feed most freely, the projecting of the
water takes place chiefly when they are engaged in
this important process. These naturalists go fur¬
ther ; “ the habits of the smaller Cetse,” they main¬
tain, “ supply a convincing proof against the opinion
of Mr. Scorseby; for beyond doubt, if the jet was
composed only of air and condensed mucus, the
porpoises on our coasts would emit this vapour in a
similar way, according to their size; and yet this
is not the case. Those who inhabit the sea-coasts
and great rivers, when sufficiently near, hear these
animals make a great noise,—to grunt like a porpoise,
is a proverb among sailors, but they never see any
apparent jet from the blow-hole.” (Zoologie de
VUranie , p. 80. J Desmoulins expresses his opinion
in these words,—“It is not water, but mucosity,
which is expelled by the blow-holes during expira¬
tion ; the animal spouts water only after deglutition,
or in the moments of rage.” (Diet. Classique.) This
two-fold view of the matter has been adopted by an
eminent British naturalist, as late as the year 1831.
60
COMPARATIVE ANATOMY
He states, the apparatus is used for getting rid of
the superfluous water from the mouth, and that this
takes place as well under water as on the surface.
“ As often as the whale opens its enormous jaws,
its mouth of course immediately fills with water;
but it is only the fish, fuci, or small marine ani¬
mals, ‘ unsafe within the wave of such commotion/
that are actually swallowed. The water itself is
partly regurgitated and partly made to pass upwards,
and by a peculiar and very admirable mechanism is
thrown out by the blow-holes. When the animal
breathes on the surface, a moist vapour, mixed with
mucus, is exhaled; but no water is thrown up,
unless the expiration is made beneath the waves, or
the creature itself is either in a sportive mood, or
under the influence of rage or terror.” (Illustra¬
tions of Zoology by James Wilson , vol. ii.)
Are we then to understand, that occasionally the
mucosity only is discharged, and that sometimes
again this is mixed with water ? Among other ar¬
guments that are used against this latter alternative,
Blainville states ( Nouv. Diet. Hist. Natur. tom. xix.)
that the construction of the parts does not admit of
the ingress of water. This is a point to be ascer¬
tained. Is it true that such a peculiarity of con¬
struction exists in all the genera; and that they
have no power to use it for both purposes as occasion
may require ? Our own observations, grounded upon
the examination of several genera, would lead us to
answer that they had this power. In the meanwhile
we remark, that as the mechanism is different in
OF THE CETACEA.
61
almost every genus, so the blowing is different in
most of them; and to such an extent, that we believe
an experienced observer could, even at .a distance,
determine the variety at any particular time in sight;
and the utility of this to the whalers need not be
insisted upon. When describing the genera, w T e
shall, as far as our materials enable us, point out
these minute peculiarities.
One general remark, however, may here be pre¬
mised, viz. that the blowing is most conspicuous in
the largest genera, very marked also in those of inter¬
mediate dimensions, "while in the smaller it is seldom
or ever visible at all. Thus Lesson remarks, “ we
have examined for hours many different species of
dolphins sporting around the vessel, without wit¬
nessing the slightest column of water, or of vapour,
being projected from the blow-holes.” (Zool . de la
Loquille , p. 1770 And so Quoy and Gaimasd,
“ the dolphins very rarely spout; w r e were going to
say never, because we have never seen it, but that
Spallanzani states that he "witnessed it whilst pass¬
ing from Lipari to Stromboli, and Humboldt men¬
tions he saw it in porpoises, in the fresh water,
three hundred leagues from the mouth of the Ori-
nocco.” (Zoologie de VUranie , p. 7^0 And this
would appear to arise not only from their inferior
size and energy, but also from a difference in the
construction of the apparatus, which we do not
think has been pointed out. * In the smaller va¬
rieties the parts seem to be much less muscular;
and hence, though quite efficient for all the purposes
62
COMPARATIVE ANATOMY
of life, they rarely produce visible spoutings, but
carry on respiration in a manner more nearly re¬
sembling animals, not inhabitants of the water.
After “ their spoutings are out,” to avail ourselves
of the expressive phraseology of the whalers, most
of the Cetee, as we have already stated, descend
into the depths of the ocean, where they are some¬
times exposed to the pressure of one hundred and
fifty-four atmospheres, equal to about a ton upon
each square inch. We have seen how this pressure
is met, by a peculiarity of the integuments over
the whole surface of the body ; it now remains
to state how the delicate apparatus we have just
described is defended from danger from the same
cause. The external opening of the blow-holes is
in some of the larger species an opening or slit of a
foot in length, the tube itself is of large dimensions,
and the chest is a great chamber of air: by what
means then is water prevented, under this immense
pressure, from entering the lungs and so destroying
the animals ? We answer: It is mainly by a set of
valves which act upon the same principle in all the
genera, but’which are varied in each, by a number
of contrivances equally extraordinary, beautiful, and
efficient. We shall illustrate this remark by epito¬
mizing a short portion of Pallas’ excellent ac¬
count of the apparatus in the Beluga or white
whale. The blow-hole opens in the most elevated
part of the head, and this opening is circumscribed
by a double arch. The skin is drawn towards this
orifice, and forms over it in front a soft papillary
OF THE CETACEA.
63
valve, which may he compared to an epiglottis,
and which prevents the entrance of foreign bodies.
The skin over the valve is scarcely two lines thick,
but internally it envelopes a projecting body, which
is about two inches thick, and which is composed
of a network of tendinous fibres hard as wood, and
which can scarcely be cut with a knife. A similar
network of tendinous fibres, arranged in circles,
forms, in this situation, the external wall of the
blowing canal; and two strong muscles rising from
the frontal bone, and peculiar to the canal, acting on
these bodies, most effectually shuts them down, and
thus secures the canal. It is an apparatus to which
there is nothing similar in any of the other mam¬
malia. We shall, on this interesting point, likewise
avail ourselves of the interesting descriptions and
sketches of Scorseby. In the true whale, he remarks,
the first impression of each blow-hole on the upper
part of the skull is marked by an oblong cavity
(see 1, sketch l. Plate i. representing the upper sur¬
face of the anterior part of the whale’s skull, the
skin and fat being removed), winch is the seat of a
muscular substance attached by its anterior extremity
to the surface of the skull, and also attached by its
posterior and inferior extremity to the interior of
the skull, at some depth in the blowing canal 1, 1,
sketch m. The part of this muscle which pene¬
trates the bony canal is of a conical form, the apex
downwards, or within, represented at 2, in figure
?/ 2 , which is a vertical section of the skull ; so that
when this interior portion contracts, the muscular
64
COMPARATIVE ANATOMY
cone is drawn tight into the orifice, and completely
closes the breathing canal 1, 1; while on the other
hand, the action of the external part of the muscle
draws the conical plug forward and upwards, and
affords a free passage for the air in respiration. This
beautiful structure it is which enables the animal,
under the immense pressure to which it is sometimes
exposed, to exclude the sea-water from its lungs: so
far from the water being forced down the canals, the
enormous load serves only more effectually to press
down and close the valves that defend the passages
to the lungs. (Journal of a Voyage , &c. 152.)
To this we may add, that in those genera in
which the external aperture to the ear is not covered
by the common integuments, there is a valve placed
in the passage to guard against the pressure of
water upon the drum of the ear, whereby it would
be broken and the organ of hearing destroyed.
Mr. Scorseby’s words, in relation to the Mysticetus,
are,—there is an elegant appearance found near
the external opening, in the shape of a little plug,
like the end of the finger, which is inserted in a cor¬
responding cavity in the interior of the canal, by a
slight motion of which the opening can either be
effectually shut, for the exclusion of water, or un¬
closed for the admission of sound : and M. Orbigny
remarks, upon four of the P. Griseus which he had
an opportunity of examining, “ the external orifice of
the ear was shut by a very fine valve which appeared
to have the power of opening a.ad shutting at the
animal’s will.” (F. Cuviers Hist., &c. 185.)
OP THE CETACEA.
65
The only other part of the animal to which we
shall at present advert is the nervous system , which,
from its vast importance on the hahits and character
of the living being, must ever be regarded with in¬
terest. It would appear that the observations made
on this point are still by much too few to enable us
to come to any thing like general results; and in
systematic writers, we meet with the utmost contra¬
riety of statement. Thus Cuvier, in his Lectures
{Comp. Anat. ii. 265), judging from the limited op¬
portunities which at that time had come within his
reach, speaks of the brain of the Cetacea generally, as
distinguished for its great breadth and height; whilst
Lesson, on the other hand, states that it is always
very small in relation to the size of the animals
(Cetaces, 23). The truth appears to lie between
these two opinions, and to have been expressed
by Hunter when he says, “ the size of the brain
differs much in different genera of the tribe, and
likewise in the proportion it bears to the bulk of
the animal.” (Loc. cit., p. 423.) It will probably
require a distinct examination of each species before
certainty is attained. From the present state of
our knowledge, it would appear that the larger
varieties have very small brains in proportion to
the size of their bodies, whilst the smaller kinds
again have very large and well developed brains.
In regard to the mysticetus , Mr. Scorseby states,
from actual examination of at least one specimen,
that the brain lies in a small cavity in the upper and
back part of the skull; its general appearance is
VOL. VI. E
66
COMPARATIVE ANATOMY
not unlike that of other mammalia, hut its smallness
is remarkable. In a young specimen, 19 feet long,
which weighed 11,200 pounds, the brain weighed
only 3 pounds 12 ounces, which is only one three
thousandth part of the whole animal; whilst in man
it is calculated to weigh one thirty-fifth part. In
a young rortrata , which measured 17 feet, Mr.
Hunter found that the brain weighed 4 pounds 8
ounces; and Mr. Delalande reports that in a rorqual ,
nearly 80 feet long, the brain filled only a cavity
which measured 13 inches by 9. On the other
hand, Cuvier states, from five examinations of the
porpoise and dolphin, that on the average the brain
weighed one sixty-third part of the whole. This
statement, regarding these smaller groups, is corro¬
borated by Tyson, who in his Anatomy of the
Porpoise remarks that the brain is large, its figure
somewhat short, but what it wants in length it has
in breadth; Ray observes that the largeness of the
brain, and its correspondence to man’s, argues this
creature to be of more than ordinary wit and capa¬
city; and Tiedemann, the highest living authority
in this department, remarks, “ that the brain of the
dolphin is distinguished from that of monkies by
its great size and developement; and, next to the
brain of the orang-outang, approaches nearest, in this
respect, to the human brain.” We here introduce a
sketch of Tiedemann s plate of the base of the brain
in the dolphin, in illustration of his remark; and add,
that considering the marked effect which the relative
size of this important organ generally has on the
OF THE CETACEA.
character of the animal, it seems desirable that
every opportunity should he embraced to accumu¬
late accurate information on the point.
There is nearly an equal paucity of facts concern¬
ing the senses of this order. First, in relation to
that of smell. Among the early fishermen and sys¬
tematic writers this faculty was conceded, in the
highest possible perfection, to the whole tribe. Thus
Anderson, in his excellent account of Iceland and
Greenland, narrates that the inhabitants of the
Ferroe isles, when they perceived that their boats
were pursued by the sperm whale, which, according
to him, is a very dangerous species, used to throw
some castor overboard, which made him sink to the
bottom like a stone. Ginger was celebrated for
similar virtues, and the blood of animals still more
so. Chalk and sulphur had still greater powers, for
no fish would come near a vessel freighted with
these articles; and such opinions are very prevalent
with sailors up to the present time. The comparative
68 COMPARATIVE ANATOMY
anatomists seem to have been the first to throw out
difficulties in the way of this belief, by discovering
that in the majority of the species the olfactory
nerve does not exist, and that there is no opening
in the skull by which that nerve can pass. Cuvier s
words, in 1823, are,—in the Cetacea there is an
absence of the olfactory nerve and the usual organs
of smell. (Os. Foss. v. 235; see too, Comp. Anat.
vol. ii. 683). Ray and Rondelitius were aware of
this fact as it respects the dolphin, yet the latter of
these authors still maintains that it has a very acute
sense of smell, “ as Aristotle testifies and experience
manifestsa conclusion in which few, now-a-days,
will be inclined to follow him. The same deficiency
has been ascertained respecting the porpoise genus ;
and Cuviers words are,—“ probably the other Ce¬
tacea likewise want them, as they have no sethmoidal
holes.” (Comp. Anat. ii. 199.) This, however,
only shows the danger of reasoning from ana¬
logy in this order of animals, whose differences ap¬
pear to be endless. “ I believe,” says Mr. Hunter,
“ the olfactory nerve is peculiar to the mysticetus and
rorqual ,—the large and small whalebone whales”
(Loc. Cit. 429) ; and such an observation was more
than sufficient to set the ingenuity of this extra¬
ordinary man to work. How do animals smell ?
have aromata any other vehicle than air ? how can
water be smelt ? and according to him, water, in
the Cetacea, never comes into contact with the
sinuses in which their olfactory nerves are dis¬
tributed ; and their perceiving smells, through the
OP THE CETACEA.
69
medium of air, could be of no service when feed¬
ing in the depths of the ocean. These are some of
the interesting questions that occurred to the mind
of J. Hunter, and on which he dwells; though we
cannot say that even his ingenuity has settled them.
Lesson states that the olfactory nerve is wholly
absent in the sperm whale (17) ; and Mr. Knox, in
his account of the great rorqual, states, that this
nerve is large. The prevailing opinion, therefore,
now is, that the sense of smell is possessed by
the true whales and the rorquals, and is wanting in
all the rest. (See Diet. Class. d’Hist. Nat. Art.
Baleine.) We much doubt, however, if this should
be regarded in any other light than an approxima¬
tion to the truth.
The organ of vision in the Cetacea appears usually
to be very small, in relation to the size of the animal ;
Cuvier has made this remark with regard to all
large animals, and especially the Cetacea. Notwith¬
standing the enormous bulk of the larger whales,
their eye is stated not to exceed in size that of an ox.
(See Arct. Reg. i. 456). In the beluga examined by
Dr. Barclay, which measured between thirteen and
fourteen feet, the eye is stated to be not so large as
in man (Wern. Trans, iii. 393); and as it regards
the porpoise, Tyson states, that it is not so large as
the sheep’s (199). In some species again, it appears
to be proportionably larger. Thus Quoy and Gai-
mard state, that in the rorqual which they examined
in the Falkland islands, about fifty-five feet long, the
eye was five inches in the long diameter and four
COMPARATIVE ANATOMY
70
in the short. In Dr. Knox’s great rorqual the organ
is placed very far back in the head, obliquely above
and behind the angle of the mouth, and near to that
part of the animal which corresponds with its greatest
breadth, so that by the simple motion of the eye it
commands a wide range of vision. Cuvier has re¬
marked that its axis of vision is directed obliquely
downwards, so that it may at all times the more
readily perceive its food as it floats below it; and, ac¬
cording to Scorseby, the sense of seeing is acute, since
whales are observed to discover one another in clear
water, when under the surface, at an amazing dis¬
tance. He at the same time states, that when on
the surface, the mysticetus does not see far. On the
other hand, it has been remarked, that the sperm
whale, when above the surface, appears to view
objects very readily which are placed in a direct
line with the eye; its common mode of looking at a
boat or ship being to turn over on its side, so as to
cause the rays from the object to strike directly
upon the retina. When alarmed, and anxious to
take as rapid a glance as possible on all sides, it as¬
sumes a perpendicular position in the water, with its
head protruding above the surface and the eye di¬
rected to the object (Beales Obs. on the Sperm
Whale), This practice, as null subsequently appear,
is not confined to the sperm whale.
The organ of hearing in the Cetm is in many
respects peculiar. It resembles considerably the
mechanism in fishes, though in various particulars
it approaches more or less to that of land animals.
OF THE CETACEA. 71
Being aquatic in their habit, the organ must espe¬
cially have a reference to the laws of sound as con¬
nected with their native element; and yet several of
the species seem so formed as to receive impressions
conveyed through air. None of them have the ex¬
ternal auricular appendages which are common in
the other mammalia ; neither have they any osseous
meatus opening; their external meatus is nothing
more then a very slender cartilaginous canal, which
commences sometimes at, and much more frequently
beneath, the surface of the skin, and takes a ser¬
pentine direction as it passes through the subja¬
cent parts to reach the drum of the ear. In the
Sperm whale the external opening would admit a
small writing quill. After the examination of the
young mysticetus , Mr. Scorseby remarks, the opening
of the passage is so small as not to be easily dis^-
covered; in the sucking whale it was only one-sixth
of an inch in diameter (Journal , &c. 154 ); and
yet at a previous period he had stated that no orifice
for the admission of sound can be discovered in
the Greenland whale until the skin is removed.
(Arct . Reg. i. 456). There is here a discrepancy
in the statements of this generally accurate and ac -
complished author; and on the authority of the
latter passage, it is usually stated that the mysticetus
has no external aperture. In the beluga which
was examined by Dr. Barclay, no external opening
could be discovered, nor was any found in the tooth¬
less whale of Havre, fifteen feet long, examined
by Blainville; nor in any of the seventy globiceps ,
COMPARATIVE ANATOMY
72
which, were stranded in Brittany in 1812; nor in
a rorqual , fifty-eight feet long, examined near
Rochefort by M. Souty; and the same is true
of a narwhal and dolphin , we have had an op¬
portunity of examining. The internal ear is quite
as peculiar, in that it is scooped out of a particular
bone forming no portion of the usual cranial bones,
and is attached to them only by ligaments. In
several of the order, the eustachian tube opens high
up in the blowing canal, answering, as we have
seen, to the nose ; and through this it evidently
must be that the animal hears any sound that is
communicated through the air: it is with this tube
also that these cavities communicate, in which it is
alleged that the nerves of smelling are situated; so
that it is with some show of truth that it has been
stated of the genera so organized, that they hear
by the nose and smell by the ear. Tiedemann re¬
marks, regarding the dolphin , “ perhaps the most
remarkable nerve for its great relative size is the
acoustic, which testifies to the delicate sense of
hearing in it.”
The two remaining senses, taste and touch, seem
to be possessed by the Cetacea in a very inferior
degree, and concerning these we shall not now stop
to make any observations.
The mental faculties of the Cetae, so far as ob¬
servations have been made on this very obscure
point, appear to vary greatly in the different genera ;
for which reason we shall reserve all remarks on
this subject till we come to treat of the different
OF THE CETACEA.
73
genera in detail. We shall do the same with regard
to the dispositions manifested by the various species,
which must he learnt in connexion with their in¬
dividual history. We may here, however, notice
one point in which they seem all to agree, viz.
the reciprocal regard they manifest for each other.
This is common more or less to them all, whether
as it regards the mother and her young, or the
cub and its parents, or the several members of the
same family or shoal. This amiable trait in the
character of the whole order, is quaintly hut beauti¬
fully illustrated in the following lines of the old
poet, Waller, which hear intrinsic marks of being a
delineation from nature. In his Battle of the
Sommer Islands, we are informed that two whales,
an old and young one, were embayed in the shal¬
lows ; and the following scenes were enacted.
The bigger whale like some high carack lay,
Which wanteth sea-room with her foes to play:
This sees the cub, and does himself oppose
Betwixt his cumber’d mother and her foes:
With desperate courage he receives her wounds.
And men and boats his active tail confounds ;
Their forces joined, the seas with billows fill,
And make a tempest, though the winds be still.
Now would the men with half their hoped-for prey
Be well content; and wish this cub away :
Their wish they have; he (to direct his dam
Unto the gap through which they thither came)
Before her swims, and quits the hostile lake,
A prisoner there, but for his mother’s sake:
She, by the rocks compell’d to stay behind
Is by the vastness of her bulk confined.—
74
COMPARATIVE ANATOMY
They shout for joy! And now on her alone
Their fury falls, and all their darts are thrown;
Their fixed jav’lins in her sides she wears,
And on her back a grove of pikes appears.
Roaring, she tears the air with such a noise
As well resembled the conspiring voice
Of routed armies when the field is won,
To reach the ears of her escaping son.
He, though a league removed from the foe,
Hastes to her aid:—
The men amaz’d, blush’d to observe the seed
Of monsters human piety exceed!
Their courage droops, and hopeless now they wish
For composition with th’ unconquer’d fish ;
Not daring to approach their wounded foe,
Whom her courageous son protected so.—
The rising tide, ere long, their efforts aid.
And to the deep a passage for them made ;
And thus they parted with exchange of harms,
Much blood the monsters lost, and they—their arms.
We now proceed to the survey of the several
genera in their order; and in doing so, we beg to
remind our readers that the whole order is divided
into two great tribes, the Ordinary and Herbivorous
Cetacea. The former is distinguished chiefly by
being more pisciform in its appearance, and entirely
so in its habits; ranging throughout the depths of
the ocean, and feeding upon the usual prey of
fishes; whilst the latter, though wholly aquatic,
approximates to the amphibia, and resides at the
estuaries of rivers, there feeding on the vegetables
which grow on the shores and shallows. The former,
OP THE CETACEA.
75
too, is by much the most numerous and varied,
being in fact one of the largest tribes which exists
in nature.
Some further division, therefore, becomes indis¬
pensable. The first and most important group has,
by Cuvier and others, been distinguished by a very
striking peculiarity, viz. the enormous size of the
head, which, according to common apprehension,
appears disproportionate, extending to a fourth, and
even a third, of the dimensions of the whole frame.
Under this first subdivision we class the Common
or Greenland Whale, the Rorquals, and the Sper¬
maceti Whales. The two former of these have no
teeth whatever, but whalebone or baleen only; and
the Sperm Whale has no baleen, and has teeth in
the lower jaw only.
76
THE GREENLAND WHALE.
PLATE II.
Balaena Mysticetus, Linn .—Common Whale, Bonnaterre ; Let-
cepede .—Greenland or right Whale of Scorseby and the
Northern Fishers_Balaena Borealis, Lesson.
As we owe our knowledge of this valuable animal
principally to the investigations of Scorseby, it will
only be doing justice to this eminent navigator, as
well as conferring a favour upon our readers, to em¬
body in our account an abstract of his excellent de¬
scription (Arctic Reg. vol. i. 449—478).
It is this interesting animal which is the object of
the important commerce to the Polar Seas; it is pro¬
ductive of more oil than any other of the Cetacea,
and being less active, slower in its motions, and
more timid than any other of the order of similar
magnitude, it is more easily captured.
In former times there was much exaggeration
as to the size of this whale, eighty and one hun¬
dred feet being assigned as a frequent size, and one
hundred and fifty and two hundred feet as not un¬
common. Some of the ancient naturalists stated
that it attained even a much greater length. Prom
the researches, however, of Scorseby, it seems irre-
GREENLAND WHALE
POTT Ell
■
THE GREENLAND WHALE. 77
fragably established that the mysticetus at no time
ever exceeds sixty-five or seventy feet.* He him¬
self was personally concerned in the capture of three
hundred and twenty-two, not one of which exceeded
sixty feet. He adds, that an uncommon whale
which was caught near Spitzbergen, the whalebone
of which measured almost fifteen feet, was not so
much as seventy feet in length; and the largest ac¬
tual measurement he has met with is that given by
the late Sir Charles Giesecki, who states that in
1813 a whale was killed at Godhaven of the length
of sixty-seven feet. Its greatest circumference is
from thirty to forty feet.
When fully grown, therefore, the length may be
stated as varying from fifty to sixty-five, or very
rarely seventy feet. It is thickest a little behind the
fins (see PI. n.), near the middle of its whole length,
whence it gradually tapers in a conical form towards
the tail, and slightly towards the head. The head is
remarkably large, as is the case with the two suc¬
ceeding genera, forming nearly one-third of the
whole bulk. The under part, the outline of which
is given by the jaw-bone, is flat, and measures from
sixteen to twenty feet in length, and from ten to
twelve in breadth. The lips, of corresponding di¬
mensions, go to enclose the cavity of the mouth in
a very striking way. The upper jaw, including the
crown-bone, is bent down at its edges, like a boat
upside down, so as to shut in the front and upper
parts of the cavity of the mouth. When the mouth
* See Edin. Phil. Joum. vol. i.
THE GREENLAND WHALE.
78
is open, it presents a cavity as large as a room, and
capable of containing a ship's jolly-boat full of men,
being fifteen or sixteen feet long, ten or twelve high,
and six or eight wide.
The mysticetus has no dorsal fin. The two pec¬
torals are placed about two feet behind the angle
of the mouth, and are about nine feet long and five
broad. They cannot be raised above the horizontal
position; and hence the account given by some
naturalists that by them the whale supports its
young on its back, must be erroneous. The tail is
horizontal; its form is flat and semilunar, indented
in the middle ; the two lobes are somewhat pointed,
and turned a little backwards.
The eyes, which, according to Sir Charles Giesecki
and Mr. Scorseby, are not much larger than those of
an ox, and with a white iris, are situated in the sides
of the head, about a foot obliquely above and behind
the angle of the mouth. The sense of seeing is
acute in the water, when clear; not so, however, in
air. On the most elevated part of the head, about
sixteen feet from the anterior extremity of the jaw,
are situated the blow-holes, consisting of two longi¬
tudinal apertures, very similar to the holes in the
body of a violin, from eight to twelve inches in
length.
The mouth, in place of teeth, contains two exten¬
sive rows of baleen, commonly called whalebone,
suspended from the upper jaw and sides of the
crown-bone. The plates of baleen are generally
curved longitudinally, and give an arched form to
THE GREENLAND WHALE. 79
the roof of the mouth. They enclose the tongue
between their lower extremities, and are themselves
covered by the lower lip. There are upwards of
three hundred of these plates on each side of the jaw,
resembling a frame of saws in a saw-mill; they
are longest in the middle, whence they gradually
diminish away to nothing both in front and behind :
ten or twelve feet is their usual length. In the
youngest whales, called suckers, the baleen is only a
few inches long; when the length reaches six feet
or upwards, the whale is said to be size: a large
whale sometimes yields a ton of baleen.
As the formation of the baleen is curious, and
forms the most striking peculiarity in this and the
next genus, we shall supply some details concern¬
ing its formation, principally taken from the account
of Mr. J. Hunter. This singular production does
not proceed directly from the gum itself, hut from a
thin vascular substance resting upon it. This sub¬
stance, which may he called the nidus of the baleen,
sends out a thin broad process, answering to each
plate, on which the plate is formed; so that each
plate is necessarily hollow at its growing end, the
first part of the growth taking place in the inside of
this hollow. Besides this, the plate receives addi¬
tional layers on the outside, which are formed in the
same vascular nidus as it extends along the jaw.
This part forms a semi-horny substance between
each plate, which is very white, rises with the whale¬
bone, and becomes even with the outer edge of the
jaw. This intermediate substance fills up the spaces
80
THE GREENLAND WHALE.
between tbe plates as high as the jaw, and acts as
abutments to the whalebones, keeping them firm
in their places. But this will be best explained by
a reference to the accompanying sketches from
Mr. Himter. (See Plate i. p , q, r.)
(p.) —1. Is the part analogous to the gum.
2. A fleshy substance covering the jaw, on which the inner
lamina of the plate is formed.
3. A white substance which surrounds the whalebone, pass
ing between the plates to form their external laminae.
4. The part which projects beyond the gum.
5. The termination of the plate in a kind of hair.
Sketch q exhibits a perpendicular section of several plates
of whalebone in their natural situation ; their inner edges
or shortest terminations are removed, and the cut edges
of the plates seen from the inside of the mouth. The upper
part shows the base from which they spring, and the white
substance in which they grow; the middle part shows the
distance of the plates from each other; the lower part, the
rough surface formed by the hairy termination of each plate.
(r.)—1. Is the basis on which the plates are formed, which
adheres to the jaw-bone.
2. 2. The intermediate white substance, laminse of which
are continued along the middle layer, and form the substance
of the plate of the whalebone.
3. The outline of another plate.
4. One of the outer layers growing from the intermediate
substance.
5. The middle layer of the plate, formed on the pulp passing
up the centre of the plate. The termination of this layer
forms the hair.
Mr. Hunter further remarks, “ that in tbe
growth of the whalebone three parts appear to be
formed; one from the rising cone, which is the
THE GREENLAND WHALE.
81
centre; a second on the outside; and a third being
the intermediate substance. These appear to have
three stages of duration; for that which forms on
the cone, I believe, makes the hair, and that on the
outside makes principally the plate of whalebone ;
this, when a certain length, breaks off, leaving the
hair projecting, becoming at the termination very
brittle ; and the third or intermediate substance, by
the time it rises as high as the edge of the jaw, de¬
cays and softens away like the old cuticle of the sole
of the foot.”
The tongue is incapable of protrusion, being fixed
from the root to the tip; a slight beard, consisting
of a few short scattered hairs, surmount the anterior
extremity of both jaws. The throat is remarkably
strait; Sir Charles Giesecki states it does not ex¬
ceed an inch and a half in width.
The colour of the mysticetus is velvet-black, grey,
and white, with a tinge of yellow. The back, most
of the upper jaw, and part of the lower, together
with the fins and tail, are black. The lips, the
fore part of the lower jaw, sometimes a little of the
upper, and a portion of the abdomen are white;
and the eyelids, the junction of the tail with the
body, a portion of the axilla of the fins, &c. are
grey. The older the animals the more they contain
of white and grey, and some are all over pie-bald.
The surface of the body is somewhat furrowed;
the scarf-skin is not thicker than parchment; the
rete-mucosum in adults is about three-fourths of an
inch in thickness, over most parts of the body; in
VOL. VI. F
82
THE GREENLAND WHALE.
suckers nearly two inches: it is generally of the same
colour throughout its thickness. The oiiaginous
substance called blubber, and constituting the most
valuable part of the animal, forms a complete
wrapper round the whole body from eight to twenty
inches thick. In some old animals it resembles the
substance of salmon, whilst in the younger it is
yellowish white. The lower jaw, excepting the
two bones, consists almost wholly of blubber, and
the crown bone is covered with it. The oil appears
to be retained in the blubber in minute cells ; it is
expelled when heated, four tons of blubber generally
affording three tons of oil; and it in a great measure
discharges itself out of the fenks ,—the square pieces
into which it is cut, whenever putrefaction in the
fibrous tissue takes place. The blubber in its fresh
state is without any unpleasant smell, and hence a
Greenland ship is not unpleasant in high latitudes.
The flesh of a young whale is of a red colour,
and when cleared of fat, broiled, and seasoned with
pepper and salt, does not eat unlike coarse beef.
That of the old whale becomes blackish, and is
exceedingly coarse. The tail is very fibrous and
sinewy, and is extensively used, particularly in
Holland, in the manufacture of glue.
The bone ,9 are very porous, and contain large
quantities of fine oil; the jaw-bones, which measure
from twenty to twenty-five feet, are often taken
care of, principally on account of the oil which
drains out of them. The external surface of the
most porous is compact and hard; the ribs are
THE GREENLAND WHALE. 83
nearly solid; the number, according to the late Sir
Charles Giesecki, is thirteen pair.
The sense of hearing in the mysticetus is pro¬
bably very different in air and water. A noise in
the air, such as that produced by a person shouting,
is not noticed by it, though at a distance only of a
ship’s length; but a very slight splashing in the
water, in calm weather, excites its attention and
alarms it.
Being somewhat lighter than the medium in
which it swims, the mysticetus can remain at the
surface with its spiracles and a considerable portion
of its hack above water, without any effort or mo¬
tion. To descend, however, requires an exertion.
The proportion which appears above water, when
alive, is probably not a twentieth part of the animal;
but, within a day after death, when the process of
putrefaction commences, it swells to an enormous
size, till at last a third of the carcase appears above
water, and sometimes the body is hurst by the force
of the air generated within.
Bulky as the whale is, and clumsy as it appears
to he, it might he imagined that all its motions
must he sluggish, and its greatest exertions pro¬
ductive of no great celerity. The fact, however, is
the reverse. A whale extended motionless at the
surface of the sea, can sink, in the space of five or
six seconds, beyond the reach of its human enemies.
Its velocity along the surface, and in other direc¬
tions, is the same. I have observed, says Scorse'by,
a whale descending, after I had harpooned it, to the
84
THE GREENLAND WHALE.
depth of about one-fourth of a mile, with the average
velocity of seven or eight miles an hour. The usual
rate, however, at which these whales swim, when
on their passage from one situation to another,
seldom exceeds four miles an hour. They are
capable, however, for the space of a few minutes,
of darting through the water with the velocity of
the fastest ship under sail; and of ascending with
such rapidity, as to leap entirely out of the water.
This feat they sometimes perform apparently as an
amusement, to the high admiration of the distant
spectator; but to the no small terror of the inex¬
perienced fisher. Sometimes the whales throw
themselves into a perpendicular position, with their
heads downwards, and moving their tremendous
tails on high in the air, heat the water with awful
violence, which, cracking like a whip, resounds to
the distance of two or three miles; the sea is thrown
into foam, and the air filled with vapours. This
performance is denominated 44 lob-tailing.”
When the animal retires from the surface, it first
lifts its head, then plunging it under water, elevates
its back like a segment of a sphere, deliberately
rounds it away towards the extremity, throws its
tail out of the water, and so disappears.
• The mysticetus usually remains at the surface to
breath about two minutes, seldom longer; during
this time it 44 blows” eight or nine times, and
then descends for an interval usually of five or ten
minutes; but sometimes, when feeding, fifteen or
twenty minutes. According to Scorseby, the right
THE COMMON WHALE.
85
whales have no voice , hut in blowing they make a
loud noise. The vapour they discharge is ejected
to the height of some yards, and appears at a distance
like a puff of smoke; they blow strongest, densest,
and loudest when in a state of alarm, or when they
first appear on the surface after being a long time
down. The depth to which they commonly descend
is not accurately known; hut, when struck, the
quantity of line they sometimes take out of the
boats, in perpendicular descent, affords a good
measure of the depth. By this rule they have been
known, according to Scorseby, to descend about a
mile, and with such velocity, that instances have
occurred in which whales have been drawn up by
the attached line from a depth greater than the
highest mountains in Scotland, and have been found
to have broken their jaws, and sometimes their
crown-bone, by the blow struck against the bottom.
Whales are seldom found sleeping; yet instances of
it have occured among ice in calm weather.
The food of these animals, so vast and strong, is
too remarkable not to claim a moment’s attention.
They have no teeth, and hence we at once perceive
they cannot prey on the smaller of their own kind,
or on the larger fishes ; and their throat is so small,
that they could not dispose of a morsel which is
swallowed by an ox. The well provided pasture
grounds, however, as they may be called, exhibit, to
the contemplation of the curious, one of the most
wonderful manifestations of Beneficence and Power.
A very considerable portion of those spaces in which
86 THE COMMON WHALE.
this whale is found is occupied by what is called
green-water. Something analogous, though of a
yellowish or reddish tint, occurs in southern lati¬
tudes, as will he afterwards noticed. Captain
Scorseby, in 1816, first investigated the peculiarities
of the green-water. This accomplished naturalist
states, that it forms perhaps one-fourth part of the
Greenland sea, between the parallels of 74° and
80°, equal to about twenty thousand square miles.
Though it is liable to alteration of position from the
action of currents, still it is always found, year after
year, near certain situations. It often constitutes
long bands or streams, of varying length and breadth,
extending 2° or 3° of latitude in length, and from
a few miles to thirty or forty in breadth. It is
usually an olive-green, and of striking opacity;
sometimes it is nearly grass-green, or with a shade
of black.
Mr. Scorseby examined the qualities of this
water, and, to his astonishment, fomid that it ob¬
tained its colour from the presence of immense
numbers of animalcules, most of them invisible
without the aid of the microscope. The greatest
number consisted of an animal of the medusa kind,
belonging to an order with wdiich most of our
readers will be familiar, under the vulgar name of
sea-blubber, a soft gelatinous substance, often found
lying on the sea shore, and exhibiting no signs of
life, except shrinking when touched. He found the
prevailing specimens to be globular, transparent,
and from one-twentieth to one-thirtieth of an inch
PLATE HI .
J.Stewart Jd?
THE COMMON WHALE. 87
in diameter. (See Plate hi.) Figure 1 is a spe¬
cimen of this, of course greatly magnified; figure 2
represents another of these minute animals, resem¬
bling small portions of fine hair, somewhat dark in
colour, and verging in length from a point to one-
tenth of an inch. There appeared to be about
fairty bead-like articulations in the largest, being
tlius beautifully monoliform; their diameter ap¬
peared to be about one three-hundredth part of an
irch. Figs. 3, 4, 5, exhibit other minute animals
which were wholly invisible to the naked eye.
Tie number of medusa was found to be immense.
Mr. S. estimates that two square miles contained
23,888,000,000,000,000; and as this number is
alove the range of human thought, he illustrates it
bj observing, that 80,000 persons must have started
at the creation of the world to complete the enu¬
meration at the present time. These animalculae
an not to be considered as the immediate food of
tie whale; they form, however, the food of the
va*ious shrimps and minute crabs, lobsters, and sea-
siails (figs. 6 , 7 , 8, 9), and medusa, &c. (10, 11,
IS, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 , 18 and 19,) upon which the
mnster of the deep is supported. In this plate is
sen at one glance the common food of this enor-
mus whale; and its dependence on these minute
meets, as well as that of the greater number
of animals which inhabit those prodigious and
drary seas, is almost too clear to require demon-
stntion. As before stated, the invisible animal-
cuae supply nourishment to the innumerable small
88
THE COMMON WHALE.
shrimps, crabs, &c.; they in their turn are the
food of the smaller fishes, which again supply
nourishment to the larger, which are devoured by
seals, dolphins, and other Cetacea; the hear again
feeds upon the seal, and thus there is a wonderful
dependent chain of existence formed, every link of
which seems essential to the integrity of the whole.
When this whale feeds, it swims with considerable
velocity below the surface, with its jaws widely
extended. A stream of water consequently enters
its mouth, and along with it large quantities of
water-insects; the water escapes again at the side ;
hut the food is entangled and sifted in the balem,
which, from its compact arrangement, and the thik
internal covering of hair, does not allow a partitle
the size of the smallest grain to escape.
It is presumed the period of gestation is nine or
ten months, and the whale has but one at a birh,
instances of two accompanying the female beiig
very rare. The young one, at the time of birth, is
ten or fourteen feet long. According to Sir Chares
Giesecki, it turns on the one side on the surfaceof
the water when it gives suck to its young, and tbn
the cub attaches itself to the teat. It goes umer
the protection of its mother, probably for somewlat
more than a year, till by the growth of the balen
it is enabled to procure its own food. It appars
to attain its full growth at the age of twenty or
twenty-five. The marks of age are an increase of
the quantity of grey colour on the skin, an< a
change to a yellowish tint of the white parts; a
THE COMMON WHALE.
w
decrease in the quantity of oil, and an increase in
the hardness of the blubber. It is supposed to
attain a great age.
The natural affection of this species is interesting.
The cub being insensible to danger is easily har¬
pooned, when the attachment of the mother is so
manifested, as to bring it almost certainly within
the reach of the whalers. Hence, though the cub
is of little value, yet it is often struck as a snare
for the mother. In this case she joins it at the
surface whenever it has occasion to rise for resni-
JL
ration, encourages it to swim off, and seldom de¬
serts it while life remains. She is then dangerous
to approach, hut affords frequent opportunities of
attack. She loses all regard for her own safety in
anxiety for the preservation of her young, dashes
through the midst of her enemies, despises the
danger that threatens her, and even voluntarily
remains with her offspring after various attacks on
herself. In 1811, says Mr. Scorseby, one of my
harpooners struck a sucker, with the hope of lead¬
ing to the capture of the mother. Presently she
arose close by the “ fast boat,” and seizing the young
one, dragged about six-hundred feet of line out of
the boat with remarkable force and velocity. Again
she rose to the surface, darted furiously to and
fro, frequently stopt short or suddenly changed
her direction, and gave every possible intimation of
extreme agony. For a length of time she continued
thus to act, though closely pursued by the boats ;
and inspired with courage and resolution by her
90
THE COMMON WHALE.
concern for her young, seemed regardless of the
danger which surrounded her. At length one of
the boats approached so near that a harpoon was
hove at her; it hit, but did not attach itself. A
second harpoon was struck, but this also failed to
penetrate ; but a third was more effectual and held.
Still she did not attempt to escape, but allowed
other boats to approach; so that in a few minutes
three more harpoons were fastened, and in the
course of an hour afterwards she was killed. There
is something, continues this interesting writer, ex¬
tremely painful in the destruction of a whale, when
thus evincing a degree of affectionate regard for its
offspring, which would do honour to the superior
intelligence of human beings; yet the object of the
adventure, the value of the prize, the joy of the
capture, cannot be sacrificed to feelings of com¬
passion.
The mysticetus, though often found in great
numbers together, can scarcely he said to he grega¬
rious ; for they are found most generally solitary,
or in pairs, excepting when they are drawn to the
same spot by the attraction of an abundance of
palatable food, or of a choice situation among the
icebergs.
The habitat of this valuable species (as we shall
presently see of others) is a point of the highest
economic importance, and more especially now, when
it has been chased from its older haunts into nearly
the impenetrable and certainly the most hazardous
recesses of the Polar Seas. In the Athenaeum of
THE COMMON WHALE.
91
the current year, January 1836, it is stated, “ that
the whole of the whales which frequent the Polar
Seas pass annually to the southward, and may be
equally well encountered in the Atlantic Ocean, in
well known positions and seasons; that they pass
in bodies in the months of March and April, about
midway between the coasts of Iceland and New¬
foundland ; and that a much nearer and less dan¬
gerous fishery might be established at that season
than by the present voyage to the Arctic Seas.”
The great importance of the point at issue has in¬
duced us to <nve this statement from our much re-
o
spected cotemporary; though we fear it is inaccu¬
rate, and might be adduced as an illustration of the
prevailing ignorance concerning the whale tribes.
If “ the whole of the whales” go southward in
March and April, how does it happen that, for
hundreds of years, so many have been captured in
the Polar Seas during the summer and autumnal
months ? Another scarcely less serious objection
is the decided statement of Mr. Scorseby, the very
highest authority on this subject, and which we be¬
lieve has never been contradicted, that the true
mysticetus has never been seen beyond the limits of
the Arctic Regions. Besides, the green-water or
feeding grounds of the whale, as well as the mollusca
and other small animals on which they feed, are rare,
or not at all seen, in lower latitudes. Mariners, it is
true, often make such statements as the above; they
have in this way reported, that great shoals of the
largest w r hales frequent the northern shores of Lap-
92
THE COMMON WHALE.
land ; and this is so far true ; but, on examination,
it is found not to be the mysticetus, but the rorqual,
which comes next under our review, and we are dis¬
posed to think, that “ the bodies of whales” will be
found to belong to this species, which, we shall pre¬
sently see, is usually avoided as unworthy of capture.
A description of the more valuable products of the
whale will follow in the succeeding sketch of the
fishery; hut we shall now say a few words of those
portions of it which are used in the domestic eco¬
nomy of uncivilized nations.
Although, to the palate of the refined European,
the flesh of this whale would he viewed with ab¬
horrence as an article of food; yet by some of the
inhabitants of the borders of the frozen seas, it is
regarded as a choice article of subsistence. The
Esquimaux eat the flesh and fat, and drink the oil
with great greediness. Indeed, some tribes which
are not familiar with spirituous liquor, carry along
with them in their canoes, bladders filled with oil,
which they use in the same way and with a similar
relish as a toper does his dram. They also eat the
skin of the whale raw, both adults and children ;
even the infants suck it with apparent delight.
Blubber, when pickled and boiled, is said to be very
palatable ; the tail, when parboiled and then fried,
is said to be not unsavoury, but even agreeable eat¬
ing ; and the flesh of young whales is by no means
indifferent food.
Besides forming a choice eatable, the inferior pro¬
ducts of the whale are applied to other purposes by
THE COMMON WHALE.
93
the inhabitants of the Arctic Regions. Some mem¬
branes of the abdomen are used for the upper articles
of clothing, and the peritoneum, in particular, being
thin and transparent, is used instead of glass in the
windows of their huts ; the bones are converted into
harpoons and spears, for striking the seal or darting
at sea-birds, and are also employed in the erec¬
tion of their tents, and, with some tribes, in the for¬
mation of their boats; the sinews are divided into
filaments, and used as thread with which they sew,
with great nicety, the different articles of their dress.
NORTHERN WHALE FISHERY.
We should feel the more regret, that our limited
space will not permit us to present a detailed ac¬
count of the commerce and adventures of the north¬
ern fishery, or that of mysticetus, if we could not
refer our readers, with the utmost confidence on
these heads, to the very elaborate work of Mr.
Scorsehy, and also to a short but masterly account,
brought down to the present day, in the last edition
of the first volume of the much esteemed work of
our contemporary, the Edinburgh Cabinet Library.
Both of these, and especially the former, are mines
of the most interesting and important information;
and we lament we cannot more freely bring their
contents under the notice of our readers. We find
NORTHERN WHALE FISHERY.
we must entirely omit even the short abridgement
we had prepared, concerning the early and past
history of the trade, as prosecuted by the Basques,
the British, Dutch, and other nations, first on the
coast of France and northern Europe; then with
amazing energy and success at Spitzbergen; then in
the Greenland seas; and finally, in Davies’ Straits
and the northern shores of America. All we can
now attempt is a few very brief statements regard¬
ing the present condition of the trade.
The following summary is given by Mr. Scorseby
as the average quantity of shipping fitted out in
different ports for nine years, ending 1818; and the
comparison of it with the number sent out in 1830,
taken from the Edinburgh Cabinet Library, will
show the state of the trade at that date. The table
likewise shows the share of the trade which is taken
by England and Scotland; that it has very much
been diminishing in the former country and some¬
what increasing in the latter.
England, Berwick
Grimsby
Liveq>ool
London .
Lynn
Hull
Whitby .
Newcastle
1 7-9ths
1 4-9ths
53 4-9ths
1 8-9ths
17 8-9ths
1 4-9ths
4 7-9ths
8 8-9ths
1
0
33
0
2
0
3
2
91 5-9ths
41
NORTHERN WHALE FISHERY.
95
Average of
1810-13.
In 1830.
Scotland, Aberdeen
Banff
Burntisland
Dundee .
Greenock
Kirkaldy
Kirkwall .
Leith
Montrose
Peterhead
10 8-9ths 10
8-9ths 0
0 1
7 5-9ths 9
8-9ths 1
7-9ths 5
6-9ths 0
8 7-9ths 7
2 7-9ths 4
6 8-9ths 13
40 l-9th 50
England 91 5-9ths 41
Total 131 6-9ths 91
The decrease so marked in the above table, in
comparing the year 1830 with the former average,
has been steadily going on up to the present time.
In 1831 there were eighty-eight ships engaged ; in
1832, eighty-one; in 1833, seventy-seven; and in
1834, seventy-six.
For many years the fishery in Davis Straits was
considered less hazardous than that of Greenland,
in as much as the sea was clearer of ice, and the
climate, on account of the lower latitude, somewhat
more mild. The alterations, however, which have
occurred in this fishery are precisely similar to those
which occurred at Spitzbergen. The fish have gra¬
dually retired more and more to the northward, and
deserted those localities in which they used to be
captured in abundance. Twenty years ago, they
were caught in great numbers in the opening of
Hudson’s Straits, and at the borders of the western
96
NORTHERN WHALE FISHERY.
ice, near the coast of Labrador. In 1817, some of
the Davis Straits whalers proceeded through the
straits into Baffin’s Bay, to a much greater length
than they were in the habit of adventuring, where,
in the months of July and August, they found the
sea clear of ice, and, in some parts, abounding
with whales. In this state of the trade, the vessels
destined for this quarter usually sailed in March or
April. They proceeded first to the northern parts
of Labrador, or to the mouth of Cumberland Straits,
carrying on what was called the south-west fishery.
After remaining there till about the beginning of
May, they crossed to the east shore of the straits,
and fished northwards along the coast. About the
month of July they usually crossed Baffin’s Bay to
Lancaster Sound, which they sometimes entered,
and occasionally even ascended Barrow’s Straits.
In returning, they fished down the western coast.
If the ships were not previously filled, they re¬
mained there till the end of September, and, in some
instances, persevered till late in October.
.« But this south-west fishery, and that on the
eastern shore, to a high latitude, have shared the
fate of the others we have alluded to; and, in the
language of the whalers, have been “ fished out.”
Captains Ross and Parry, on returning from their
celebrated voyages, reported that, on the north¬
western shores of Baffin’s Bay, whales had been seen
in vast numbers, and this information immediately
kindled the spirit of enterpise, and, for a time, signal
success was the result. Since that period, the ori-
NORTHERN WHALE FISHERY. 97
ginal grounds in Labrador and Davis Straits have
been regarded only as secondary objects; and every
nerve has been strained to reach those interior shores
in high latitudes, where whales are still found in
abundance. If, however, the prize is here found,
so also is a corresponding risk; and dangers far-
exceeding those previously met with, have been
encountered, and disasters which had never been
previously equalled, even in this hazardous trade.
The British capital embarked in this branch of
commerce is calculated to be at the present time
upwards of £.1,000,000 Sterling. The average
return for the five years, ending with 1818, was
£.567,000 per annum; that of 1814, a year pecu¬
liarly favourable, was above £.700,000; that of
1829 was upwards of £.376,000; and that of 1830,
including the South Sea Fishing, was £.428,591.
When a ship returns clean, the loss is estimated
about £.2000; and the total expenses of a voyage,
which yields two hundred tons of oil, is about
£.3500.
The average price of oil for the last twenty years
has been about £.30 per ton; and of whalebone
£.163. The greatest cargo ever known by Mr.
Scorseby, to have been brought from the northern
seas, was that by Captain Souter of the Resolution
of Peterhead, in 1814. It consisted of forty-four
whales, yielding two hundred and ninety-nine tons
of oil, which sold at £.9568; and adding the
bounty and whalebone, the entire returns amounted
£.11,000. In 1817, both Mr. Scorseby and his
VOL. VI. ' G
98
NORTHERN WHALE FISHERY.
father, who spent a long and honourable life in the
trade, secured cargoes which, though less in quan¬
tity, yet, from the price being higher, yielded a
larger return. This latter gentleman, in the course
of twenty-eight voyages, killed four hundred and
ninety-eight whales, whence were extracted four
thousand two hundred and forty-six tons of oil, the
value of which, with the bone, exceeded £.150,000!
So keenly has the fishery been prosecuted, and
so great has been the number of whales taken, that
it has been feared that, unless some restriction be
imposed, the race will be extinguished, and the trade
destroyed. Mr. Scorseby states, that, during the four
years ending with the summer 1817, the number of
whales killed by the British Greenland ships was
three thousand five hundred and eight; and by those
of the Davis Straits fishery, one thousand five
hundred and twenty-two, in all five thousand and
thirty. Upon the whole, it seems evident, that all
those localities which were once crowded with the
mysticetus, after the whalers have visited them for
some time, become nearly deserted, and thus our
fishers are time after time compelled to seek for
new grounds for their exertions. And if the trade
continue to be prosecuted with the same eagerness,
there seems reason to fear that the mighty giant of
the deep 'will finally share the fate of the most
gigantic species of land animals, which would ap¬
pear to have become extinct •within the records of
history, and that chiefly through the encreasing
slaughter and pursuit of man.
99
PROCEEDINGS IN CAPTURING THE wrfALE.
But it is now time to give a short sketch of the
method practised in capturing the whale. The first
object is to fit out a ship adapted for the trade ;
and constructed, therefore, in such a manner as
to possess a peculiar degree of strength. Its ex¬
posed parts, accordingly, are secured with double
or treble timbers; whilst it is fortified internally
with ice beams and cross bars, and externally with
iron plates, &c. so disposed as to make the pressure
on any one part to be supported by the whole fabric.
A ship of about three hundred and fifty tons is
deemed the most eligible, with a crew of about
fifty men; six or seven very light and swift boats
are required for the immediate pursuit ; and one of
the essential requisites is the crows nest , or hur¬
ricane-house, invented by the elder Scorseby, a
species of watch-tower, made of hoops and canvass,
placed on the main-top mast for the use of the
master or officer on watch, to shelter him from the
blast, wffiere he may be called to sit for hours at
the temperature of zero, and whence he can discover
all the movements of the surrounding ice or fish,
and give directions accordingly.
The whaling vessels, in going north, usually touch
at the Shetland Islands, to complete their water, pro¬
visions, &c. and leaving the land generally about the
beginning of April, they arrive within the Polar
Seas before the end of that month. As soon as they
\
100
PROCEEDINGS IN
reach the haunts of the whale, the crew must be
every moment on the alert, keeping watch day and
night. The boats, hanging over the ship’s side, are
ready to be launched in an instant ; and when the
state of the sea admits, one of them is usually
manned and afloat. The officer in the crow’s nest
surveys the waters to a great distance, and the
instant he perceives a whale he gives notice to the
watch on deck, some of whom start instantly with
the first boat, which is immediately followed by a
second. Each of the boats has a harpooner and
other subordinate officers; and is provided with an
immense quantity of rope, carefully coiled and
stowed in different parts of the boat, the different
parts being spliced together, so as to form a con¬
tinued line usually exceeding 4000 feet in length.
To the end is attached the harpoon. The boat is
now rowed towards the whale with the greatest
possible speed, in the deepest silence, cautiously
avoiding giving alarm : sometimes a circuitous route
is adopted in order to approach it from behind.
Having reached within a few yards, the harpooner
darts his instrument into the giant, who in the
surprise and agony of the moment makes a convul¬
sive effort to escape. This is the moment of danger,
for the boat is exposed to the most violent blows of
the whale’s head or fins, and still more of its tail,
which sometimes sweeps the air with such tre-
CAPTURING THE WHALE. 101
mendous fury, that both boat and men are exposed
to a common destruction.
The moment that the wounded whale disappears,
a jack or flag is displayed in the boat; on the sight
of which, those on watch in the ship give the
alarm by stamping on the deck, accompanied by
the continued shout of “ a fall, a fall.” At this
signal the sleeping crew axe aroused, jump from
their beds, rush upon deck, with their clothes tied
in a string in their hands, and crowd into the boats.
With a temperature at zero, should a fall occur, the
crew would appear on deck, covered only with their
under garments, in the anticipation of dressing
themselves, in part at least, as the boats are lowered
down, though sometimes they are disappointed, and
cannot get the process accomplished for a length of
time afterwards.
The first and usual effort of the fast-Jish is to
escape from the boat by sinking under water,
plunging with rapid flight under some neighbouring
mountain of ice, or into the deep abyss. When
fleeing from his pursuers, and then darting at the rate
of eight or ten miles an hour, the greatest care must
be used, that the line to which the harpoon is at¬
tached may run off readily along with him. Should
it be entangled for a moment, the whale would draw
the boat beneath the waves. Sometimes, however,
to retard its motion, it is usual for the harpooner
to cast one or more turns of the line round a kind
of post, called the bollard , which is fixed near the
Stem of the boat for the purpose; and such is the
102
PROCEEDINGS IN
friction of the line, when running round the bollard,
that it frequently envelopes the harpooner in smoke ;
and if the wood were not repeatedly wetted, it
would set fire to the boat. Notwithstanding this
manoeuvre, the line is often run out in eight or ten
minutes; its end is then attached to the lines of the
next boat, and even those of a third are sometimes
put into requisition. When the crew of a boat see
there is a prospect of their own store being ex¬
hausted, they hold up one, two, three, or more oars,
according to the urgency of the required aid; for if
none arrives, there is only one resource left, which
is to cut the line, and thus lose it, fish and all.
The period during which a wounded whale re¬
mains under water is various, but, at an average,
may be stated at half an hour. It is sometimes an
hour, and more rarely longer still; and it has been
asserted, on good authority, that a case has occurred
of a wounded whale being dragged up alive after
having been an hour and a half continually under
water; a singular fact, certainly, in the history of
warm-blooded animals. When it remains long under
water, it becomes asphyxiated or nearly drowned,
and in all instances is greatly exhausted for want
of fresh air, and by means of the enormous pres¬
sure, equal according to Mr. Scorsehy to upwards
of 200,000 tons, which exceeds the weight of sixty of
the largest ships of the British Navy, when manned,
provisioned, and fitted for a six months cruise.
When the fast fish is under water, the assisting
boats take up those positions near to which they cal-
CAPTURING THE WHALE.
103
culate he is most likely to rise, in order that one
of them at least may be within a start , as it is
called; that is, within two hundred yards of his
place of re-appearing, at which distance they can
easily reach him before he is prepared to descend
again. On its rising, they hasten towards the spot,
and as they reach it, each harpooner plunges his
weapon into its back, to the amount of three, four,
or more, according to the size of the whale, and
the nature of the situation. Most frequently, how¬
ever, the animal descends a few minutes after re¬
ceiving the second harpoon, and obliges the other
boats to await its return to the surface, before any
further attack can be made. After this it is actively
plied with long and sharp lances, which are thrust
into its body, and aimed deep at its vitals. At
length, when exhausted with numerous wounds and
the loss of blood, which flows in copious streams, it
indicates the approach of dissolution by discharging
blood from the spiracles, along with the air and
mucus, and finally, jets of blood alone appear. The
sea to a great extent is dyed with the blood,—and the
ice, boats, and men, are sometimes drenched with it.
Its track is likewise marked by a broad pellicle of
oil, which exudes from its w'ounds, and appears on
the surface of the sea. The final capture is some¬
times preced'ed by a convulsive and awful struggle :
and in dying, it turns over on its side or back;
which joyful circumstance is announced by three
loud huzzas, and the striking of the flags. No time
is lost, ere the tail is pierced and fastened with ropes
104
PROCEEDINGS IN
to the boats, which drag the carcase to the ship
amidst shouts of triumph.
What is the time requisite for capturing a whale ?
In answer to this question, Mr. Scorseby states, that
he has seen a whale despatched in fifteen minutes,
and others alive, after severe treatment, at the end
of fifty hours. Much depends on the conduct of
the animal itself,—much on the activity of the
whaler,—and much, also, on the nature of the situ¬
ation and weather. He states, that the average
time does not exceed an hour.
As bearing on this point, and exhibiting the sur¬
prising vigour of the mysticetus, we shall here in¬
troduce an anecdote related by Mr Scorseby. In
1817 the Royal Bounty of Leith fell in with whales
at a distance from land and ice, there being at the
same time a brisk breeze and clear weather. The
boats were manned and sent in pursuit. After a chase
of five hours, one of the boats struck the whale about
four a. m. The captain followed in the ship, and
though for a time he lost sight of them, yet he again
descried a boat at eight A. M., with a signal displayed
of being fast. Some time after, he observed another
boat approach the fish, a second harpoon struck,
and a new signal displayed. As, however, the fish
drew the two boats away with considerable speed,
it was mid-day before any assistance could reach
them. Two more harpoons were then struck; but
such was the vigour of the whale, that, though
it constantly dragged through the water from four to
six boats, together with a length of nearly a thousand
CAPTURING THE WHALE.
105
feet of line to each, yet it pursued its course nearly
as fast as a boat could row; and such was the terror
it manifested on the approach of its enemies, that
whenever a boat passed beyond its tail, it invariably
dived. All endeavours, therefore, to lance it were
in vain. The crews of the loose boats, being unable
to keep pace with the fish, moored themselves to
the fast boats, and for some hours afterwards all
hands were constrained to sit idle, waiting for some
relaxation in the speed of the whale. Its general
course had been to windward, but its changing
enabled the ship, which had previously been at a
great distance, to join the boats at eight, p. m.
The vessel took one of the fast lines on board,
with the view of retarding its progress. The sails
were lowered and furled, but after supporting the
ship for a few minutes, head to 'wind, the harpoon
lost its hold. - The whale immediately set off to
windward with increased speed, and, for three hours,
the ship could not again approach it. Another line
was then taken on board, but immediately broke.
A fifth harpoon had previously been struck, but its
line was speedily cut. Various schemes for arresting
the speed of the fish were then resorted to, which
occupied close attention for nearly twelve hours ;
but its velocity was still such, that the master, who
had himself proceeded to the attack, was unable
to approach sufficiently near to strike a harpoon.
After a long chase, however, he succeeded in get¬
ting hold of one of the fast lines, and attached
another line to it. The fish then fortunately turned
106
PROCEEDINGS IN
towards the ship. At four p. m., thirty-six hours
after it was struck, the ship again joined the boats,
when, by a successful manoeuvre, they secured two
of the fast lines on board. The wind was blowing
a moderately brisk breeze, and the sails were
lowered; but notwithstanding the resistance a ship
thus situated must necessarily have offered, she was
towed by the fish directly to windward, with a
velocity of two knots, during an hour and a half;
and then, though the whale must have been greatly
exhausted, it beat the w T aters with its fins and tail
in so tremendous a way, that the sea around was
in a continual foam, and the most hardy of the
sailors scarcely dared to approach it. At length,
about eight p. m., after forty hours of almost inces¬
sant exertion, this formidable enemy w r as slain.
After a whale has been caught and secured at the
sides of the ship, the next operation is that of flensing
or securing the blubber and whalebone. This dis—
agreeble process can, with the whole strength of the
crew, he effected in about four hours. Each seaman
receives a dram, and some of the more important
personages receive two. The huge carcass is some¬
what extended by strong tackles placed at the snout
and tail: a hand of blubber two or three feet in
width, encircling the fish’s body at what is the neck
in other animals, is called the kent , because by
means of it the fish is turned over or kented. To
this band is fixed the lower extremity of a combi¬
nation of powerful blocks, called the kent-purchase ,
by means of which, the whole circumference of the
CAPTURING THE WHALE.
107
animal is, section by section, brought to the surface.
The harpooners then, having spikes on their feet to
prevent their falling from the carcass, begin with
a kind of spade, and with huge knives, to make
long parallel cuts from end to end, which are divided
by cross-cuts into pieces of about half a ton. These
are conveyed on deck, and, being reduced into
smaller portions, are stowed in the hold. Finally,
being by other operations still further divided, it is
put into casks, which is called making-off, and
packed down completely by a suitable instrument.
When this flensing is proceeding, and when it
reaches the lips, which contain much oil, the baleen
is exposed. This is detached by means of bone hand¬
spikes, bone knives, and bone spades. The whole
whalebone is hoisted on deck in one mass, where
it is split by bone-wedges into junks, containing
five or ten blades each, and stowed away. When
the whole whalebone and blubber are thus pro¬
cured, the two jaw-bones, from the quantity of oil
which they contain, are usually hoisted on deck,
and then only the kreng remains,—the huge car¬
cass of flesh and bone, which is abandoned either
to sink, or to be devoured by the birds and sharks,
and bears, which duly attend on such occasions for
their share of the prey.
It will be readily believed that none of the pro-
108
PROCEEDINGS IN
ceedings which we have now been considering are
free from numerous perils. In a high sea the flen¬
sing itself is often difficult or impossible; and
those upon the body of the fish are exposed to con¬
siderable risk. Sometimes they fall into the "whale’s
mouth, at the imminent hazard of being drowned.
In the case of a heavy swell, they are drenched, and
often washed over by the surge. Occasionally they
have their ropes broken, and are wounded by each
others’ knives. Mr. Scorseby mentions an instance
of a man, who, after the flensing was completed,
happened to have his foot attached by a hook to the
carcass, when it was inadvertently let go. He
caught hold of the gunwale of the boat; but the
whole immense mass was now suspended by his
body, occasioning the most excruciating torture, and
even exposing him to the risk of being tom asunder;
when his companions contrived afresh to hook the
carcass with a grapnel, and brought it back to the
surface.
In the account which we have presented of the
capture, all circumstances are supposed to be fa¬
vourable ; but often it is the very reverse. A storm
may arise, and a fog often envelopes the whole
operations; immense islands or floes, i. e. masses of
field-ice, may be impelled upon them by the tem¬
pest, and with such velocity as to overwhelm them
in a moment, or a frost may make them fast in its
hard and icy grasp. It is such incidents as these
which make this employment one of the most trying
and hazardous that can be pursued: while they
CAPTURING THE WHALE.
109
occasionally lead to the most extraordinary ad¬
ventures ; as examples of which, we subjoin a very
few narratives of facts.
The whale itself, though for the most part unde-
signedly, is the cause of the greatest number of
accidents which occur. Injuries are often sustained
by entanglement with the lines. A sailor belonging
to the John of Greenock, in 1818, happening to
slip into a coil of running rope, had his foot entirely
cut off, and was obliged to have the lower part of
the leg amputated. A haxpooner belonging to the
Hamilton, when engaged in lancing a whale, in¬
cautiously cast a little line under his foot: The pain
of the lance induced the whale to dart suddenly
downwards; his line began to run out from under
his feet, and, in an instant, caught him by a turn
round the body: He had just time to call out,
“ Clear away the line—Oh dear!” when he was
almost cut asunder, dragged overboard, and never
seen afterwards. The following graphic and tra¬
gical scene is taken from Mr. Scorseby’s Journal.
Two boats belonging to the Baffin of Liverpool
having been many hours absent from the ship, and
occasioned much anxiety, were at last descried
pulling towards the ship. On their approach, we
were a little surprised by some unusual appear¬
ances, particularly their want of their proper com¬
plement of oars, and the solemn countenances of
the rowers. As soon as they came within hail, I
inquired what had happened. “ A bad misfor¬
tune, indeed,” was the answer, w we have lost
110
DANGERS IN
Carr!”—the principal officer of the boat. The par¬
ticulars were as follow : The two boats which had
been so long absent had in the outset separated
from their companions, and allured by the chase of
a whale, they proceeded till they were far out of
sight of the ship. The whale led them amidst a
great shoal ; one rose so near the boat of which
Carr was harpooner, that he ventured to pull
towards it, though it was meeting him, and offered
but an indifferent prospect of success: he, how¬
ever, succeeded in liarpooning it. The boat and
fish passing each other with great rapidity after the
stroke, the line was jerked out of its place, and, in¬
stead of “ running” over the stem, was thrown over
the gunwale; its pressure in this unfavourable posi¬
tion so careened the boat, that the side sank under
water and began to fill. In this emergency the har¬
pooner, who w r as a very fine active fellow, seized the
line, and attempted to relieve the boat, by restoring
it to its place; but a turn of the line flew over his arm,
in an instant dragged him overboard, and plunged
him under water to rise no more ! So sudden was
the accident, that only one man, who had his eye
upon him at the moment, was aware of what had
happened ; so that when the boat righted, which it
immediately did, though half full of water, they all
at once, on looking round at an exclamation from
the man who had seen him launched overboard,
inquired “ What had got Carr V It is scarcely
possible to imagine a death more awfully sudden
or unexpected. The accident was, indeed, so in- .
CAPTURING THE WHALE.
Ill
stantaneous, that he had no time for the least
exclamation; and the person who witnessed his
extraordinary removal observed, that it was so
exceedingly quick, that although his eye was upon
him at the instant, he could scarcely distinguish the
object as it disappeared.
A large whale became the subject of a general
chase, says Scorseby, on the 23d of June. Being
myself in the first boat which approached the fish,
I struck my harpoon at arm’s-length, by which we
fortunately evaded a blow which appeared to be
aimed at the boat. Another boat then advanced,
and another harpoon was struck, but not with the
same result; for the stroke was immediately re¬
turned by a tremendous blow from the fish’s tail.
The boat was sunk by the shock, and at the same
time whirled round with such velocity, that the
boat-steerer was precipitated into the water on the
side next to the fish, and carried down to a con¬
siderable depth by its tail. After a minute or so,
he arose to the surface, and was taken up along
with his companions into another boat.
Some boats of the Aimwell, on the 26th May,
being in pursuit of whales, harpooned one. When
struck, this individual only dived for a moment,
and then rose again beneath the boat, struck it in
the most vicious manner with its tail and fins, stove,
upset it, and then disappeared. The crew, seven in
number, got on the bottom of the boat; but the un¬
equal action of the lines, which remained entangled
with the boat, rolled it over occasionally, and thus
112
DANGERS IN
plunged the crew repeatedly into the water. Four
of them, after each immersion, recovered themselves
and clung to the boat; hut the other three were
drowned before assistance could arrive. The four
men being rescued, the attack on the whale was
continued, and two more harpoons were struck.
But the whale, irritated instead of being enervated
by its wounds, recommenced its furious attack.
The sea was in foams; its tail and fins were in
awful play; and, in a short time, harpoon after
harpoon drew out, and the fish escaped.
We produce the following account, not because
we believe it refers to the Greenland Whale (we
think it did not), but because the adventure elicited
the statement, that the same feat is often exhibited
by it; as is true, we believe, of all the larger genera.
Dr. Foster, indeed, in Cook’s Voyages, very clearly
tells us he saw it in the southern rorqual, as will
be found in our account of that animal. The fol¬
lowing anecdote is extracted from the interesting
fragments of Captain B. Hall, and occurred when
that gentleman was midshipman on board his ma¬
jesty’s ship Leander, which was lying at the time in
the roads of Bermuda, the locality already signalized
on page 73. As on the former occasion, a great
whale, between fifty and sixty feet in length, which
was embayed within the coral rocks, and swimming
about the vessel, soon attracted the attention of the
crew. All hands crowded into the rigging to see it
floundering about, till at length some one proposed
to pay him a visit in one of the ship’s boats, “ and
GREENLAND WHALE
PLATE IV.
CAPTURING THE WHALE.
133
away we (viz. some of the midshipmen) went,” says
the Captain, “ in ourwild-goose whale-chase. All eyes
were now upon us, and, after a pause, it was agreed
unanimously that we should run right on hoard of
him and take our chance. So we rowed forward,
but the whale slipped down, clean out of sight, leaving
only a monstrous pool, in the vortex of which we
continued whirling about for some time. As we were
lying on our oars, and somewhat puzzled what to do
next, we beheld one of the most extraordinary sights
in the world ; at least, I do not remember to have
seen many things which have surprised me so much,
or made a deeper impression on my memory. Our
friend the whale, probably finding the water dis¬
agreeably shallow, or perhaps provoked at not being
able to disentangle himself from the sharp coral
reefs, or from some other reason of pleasure or pain,
suddenly made a leap out of the Water. So com¬
plete was this enormous leap, that for an instant
we saw him fairly up in the air, in a horizontal
position, at a distance of at least twenty perpendi¬
cular feet over our heads! While in his progress
upwards, there was in his spring some touch of the
vivacity with which a trout or a salmon shoots out
of the water ; but he fell back again on the sea, like
a huge log thrown on its broadside, and with such
a thundering crash, as made all hands stare in
astonishment, and the boldest held his breath for a
time. Total demolition, indeed, must have been
the inevitable fate of our party, had the whale
taken his leap one minute sooner, for he would
yol. vi. n
114
DAGGERS IN
then have fallen plump on the boat. The waves
caused by the explosion spread over half the an¬
chorage ; nor, if the Leander herself had blown up,
could the effects have extended much farther.”
After preparing the foregoing narrative for the
press, Captain Hall, in order to fortify himself by
the highest authority in these matters, wrote to Mr.
Scorseby, detailing the fact, and inquiring if he had
ever witnessed any tiling of the sort. This elicited
the following reply, “ I have much pleasure in being
able to speak to the point in attestation of the not
infrequency of the exhibition of the high leaps
which you witnessed, however ignorance might
charge it as 4 very like a whale/ Whilst engaged
in the northern whale fishery, I witnessed many
similar exploits of whales of forty or fifty feet in
length, forgetting their usual gravity, and making
these odd exhibitions of their whole form from head
to tail. Certainly, I have several times seen whales
leap so high out of water, as to be completely in
air, which, reckoning from the surface of the back,
could scarcely be less than twenty feet, and possibly
might be more. I have at different times pursued
these ffolicksome fish, but they have always es¬
caped.”
“ In one of my earliest voyages,” remarks Mr.
Scorseby, on another occasion, “ I observed a circum¬
stance which excited my highest astonishment. One
of the harpooners struck a whale, it dived, and all
the assisting boats had collected round the fast boat
before it arose to the surface. The first boat that
GREENLAND WHALE.
CAPTURING THE WHALE.
115
approached it advanced incautiously. It rose with
unexpected violence beneath the boat, and projected
it and all the crew to the height of some yards into
the air. It fell on its side, and cast all the men
into the water; one was somewhat injured, but the
rest escaped.”
Captain Lyons of the Raith of Leith, in 1802,
despatched four boats after a large whale on the
coast of Labrador, and two of them succeeded in
approaching so closely together, that two harpoons
were struck at the same moment. The fish de¬
scended a few fathoms in the direction of another
of the boats, which was on the advance,—rose be¬
neath it, struck it with its head, and threw the boat,
men, and apparatus about fifteen feet into the air.
It was inverted by the stroke, and fell into the
water with its keel upwards. All the people were
picked up alive by the fourth boat, except one man,
who, having got entangled in the boat, fell beneath
it and was drowned.
The following anecdote illustrates the dangers
arising from the ice. On the commencement of a
heavy gale of wind, May 11, 1813, fourteen men
put off in a boat from the Volunteer of Whitby,
with the view of fixing an anchor on a large piece
of ice, to which it was intended to moor the ship.
The ship approached on a signal being made, and
a rope was fixed to the anchor; but the ice shiver¬
ing with the violence of the strain when the ship
fell astern, the anchor flew out, and the ship went
adrift. She attempted again to approach the ice,
116
DAGGERS IN
but in vain, owing to the violence of the gale, and
scudded to leeward; thus leaving fourteen of her
crew to a fate the most dreadful, the fulfilment of
which appeared almost inevitable. The temperature
was at 15° Fahrenheit, when these poor fellows
were left upon a detached piece of ice of no con¬
siderable magnitude, without food, without shelter
from the inclement storm, and deprived of every
means of refuge, except a single boat, which, on
account of the number of men and the violence of
the storm, w T as incapable of conveying them to their
ship. "Death stared them in the face whichever
way they turned, and a division of opinion ensued.
Some w r ere wishful to remain by the ice ; but it
could afford them no shelter and would probably
be soon broken to pieces by the increasing swell;
others were anxious to attempt to join their ship
whilst she was yet in sight; but the force of the
wind, the violence of the sea, and the smallness of
the boat, were objections which would have ap¬
peared insurmountable to any but men in a state of
despair. Judging that, by remaining on the ice,
death was but retarded for a few hours, as the ex¬
treme cold must eventually benumb their faculties,
they determined to make the attempt of rowing to
the ship. Poor souls! What must have been their
sensations at this moment ? They made the daring
experiment, when a few minutes trial convinced
them that the attempt was impracticable. They
then, with longing eyes, turned their efforts to¬
wards recovering the ice which they had left; but
CAPTURING THE WHALE. 117
their utmost exertions proved unavailing. Every
one of them now considered his doom as sealed:
how great then must have been their delight, and
how overpowering their sensations, when, at this
critical juncture, a ship appeared in sight. She
was advancing directly towards them; their voices
were extended, and their flag displayed; though
not heard, they were seen; and their mutual courses
being so directed as to form the speediest union,
a few minutes saw them in safety on the deck of
the Lively.
But we must draw these interesting anecdotes to
a close, and we shall do so by epitomizing a narra¬
tive from the Journal of Mr. Gibson, surgeon of the
Trafalgar, which especially illustrates the great and
numerous dangers which arise from icebergs, or
more properly ice-islands. “ August 12, 1822,
four, p. M. Blowing a fresh gale with rain; the
floe to which the ship was made fast set down
under the lee-ice, so as to render our situation
perilous. Towards midnight we became unexpec¬
tedly entangled among heavy pieces of ice and floes,
where the ship received some severe blows on her
beams. Finding it impossible to get out, we lay
to, and in half an hour the ship was close beset.
Though I retired to bed when the ship was enclosed,
I expected every minute to he called to quit the
ship. About three a. m., a large piece of ice press¬
ing on the ship opposite my bed-cabin, broke two
or three of the timbers with a dismal noise. Think¬
ing all was over, I sprang out of bed. On going
118
DANGERS IN
upon deck, I found to my great consternation that
the ship was under an enormous pressure from nu¬
merous huge masses of ice surrounding her on all
sides, without an opening of water sufficient for a
boat within two miles: and no other ship was in
sight, though the weather was clear. Most of the
crew were providing for shipwreck, and many of
the people were supplicating Divine Mercy for
deliverance. At nine a. m. most gave up all hopes
of saving the ship, and mine were very faint of
saving ourselves. Four days’ allowance were cooked
with all speed; other provisions were taken upon
deck, and every thing of importance placed in
readiness to be thrown on the ice. At eleven a. m.,
however, our drooping spirits were greatly revived
by observing a slight relaxation of pressure; but
in half an hour we were again thrown into despair
by the return of the pressure. At noon, a man on
the mast-head saw a ship (the Baffin), on which
we instantly made signals of distress. At this
time a dead silence prevailed throughout the ship;
the crew looking on one another in awful suspense.
At one time the pressure was so strong that the
pannels of the captain’s state-room were forced out
of their framing. About half an hour after this
the ship was suddenly thrown iipon her larboard
side, on which all hands sprang upon deck. I shall
never forget the confusion of the poor men, nor their
■wild looks when they gained the deck; for half of
them were below at the time of the shock, and from
the smallness of the hatch, only one could get up at
CAPTURING THE WHALE. 119
a time. Some leaped upon the ship’s side and
were going upon the ice, when the captain cried out
to them to behave like men and stick to the ship
as long as she remained above water! We all stood
on that part of the ship nearest the ice, with our
bags of clothing on our shoulders. For fifteen mi¬
nutes we had patiently waited our doom; when,
by the interposition of Divine Providence, the wind
changed,—the ice began to set off from the ship, and
in fifteen minutes more she recovered her upright
position. The water now rapidly spread among the
surrounding ice, and, finally, the vessel was warped
out and floated uninjured on the waves.”
We add one other more recent and still more
awful occurrence. It is pretty generally known that
the year 1830 proved peculiarly disastrous to the
whale fishery, in as much as nineteen British vessels
were totally wrecked during the season, and twelve
more materially damaged, at a computed loss of
upwards of <£.142,000. Most of this injury was
received in Baffin’s Bay, in the high latitude of Mel¬
ville Bay, and was principally caused by the ice being
drifted in immense quantities among the vessels,
and so agitated during a succession of storms as
finally to overwhelm them. We have room only
for a short extract, taken from the highly interest¬
ing account given in the Edinburgh Cabinet Li¬
brary (i. 448). “ A small squadron, consisting of
six very fine vessels, in attempting a passage to the
west side, encountered a fresh gale, which drove in
upon them masses of ice, by which they were soon
120
DANGERS IN
beset. They ranged themselves under the shelter
of a large floe, having water barely sufficient to float
them. Here they formed a line, one behind another,
standing close, stem to stem, and being at the same
time so pressed against the ice, that in some places a
boat-hook could with difficulty he inserted in the in¬
terval. In the evening of the 24th the sky darkened,
—the gale increased—the floes began to overlap each
other, and closed upon the ships in an alarming
manner. The sailors then attempted to saw out
a sort of dock, where they hoped to be relieved from
this severe pressure; but soon a huge floe was driven
upon them, with a violence completely irresistible.
The Eliza Swan of Montrose received the first
shock, and was saved only by the ice raising her up.
It next struck the St. Andrew of Aberdeen midship,
breaking about twenty of her timbers, and staving
a number of casks ; but it then fortunately moved
along her side, and went off by the stern. Now,
however, pursuing its career, it reached successively
the Baffin of Leith; the Achilles of Dundee; the
Ville de Dieppe, a French ship; and the Rattler of
Leith, and dashed against them with such tremen¬
dous fury, that these four noble vessels, which had
braved for years the tempests of the Polar deep,
were, in a quarter of an hour, shattered into frag¬
ments. The scene was awful,—the grinding noise
of the ice tearing upon their sides,—the masts break¬
ing off and falling in every direction—were added
to the cries of two hundred sailors leaping upon the
frozen surface, with only such portions of their
CAPTURING THE WHALE.
121
clothes as they could snatch in a single instant.
The Rattler is said to have become the most com¬
plete wreck almost ever known. She was literally
turned inside-out; and her stem and stem carried
to the distance of a gunshot from each other;—and
the Achilles had her sides nearly pressed together,
her stem thrust out, her decks and beams broken
into innumerable pieces. It has been well observed,
under such circumstances as these, that a ship, even
the strongest which human art can construct, be¬
comes like an egg-shell, when opposed to the full
force of so terrific an agent.”
The only other species of this genus, which we
shall bring under review, is the Bcdcena Australis ,
or
VOL. VI.
i
122
WHALE OF THE SOUTHERN SEAS.
Balaena Australis, Desmoulins. —B. Antarctica, Lesson.
This species, nearly up to the present period, has
been confounded with the former, and probably we
might still have been ignorant of the difference, had
not M. de Lalande, during his residence at the
Cape of Good Hope, succeeded by his energy and
zeal in preparing one of these animals and trans¬
mitting its skeleton to France, where, on its arrival
at the Jardin des Plantes , Cuvier soon detected its
specific differences.
The whale of the southern seas is decidedly
smaller than that of the north, measuring usually
thirty-five or forty-five feet, but frequently extend¬
ing to fifty feet. Its baleen, owing to the great
curve of the upper jaw, appears to be relatively
longer ; usually reaching to about nine feet in a fish
of forty feet. The head is very frequently covered
with barnacles, having layer above layer, so that its
aspect is very different from the northern Mysti-
cetus, being often of a white colour. The pectoral
fins appear to be longer and more pointed, whilst
the lobes of the tail are less marked than in the
former species. When cleared of its covering of
shells, it is of a uniform black colour.
There seems to be good ground for supposing
WHALE OF TOE SOUTHERN SEAS. 123
that this is the whale which has been so extensively
fished in the southern seas as the Mysticetus ; and
that it was on its account that so many establish¬
ments were set agoing in many parts of the Brazils,
which, after being carried on for a time witli great
success, are now nearly abandoned; D’Orbigny
states, that in 1834 the whales had nearly dis¬
appeared from this coast. They seem, however, to
frequent many other places in abundance: they
are found in the Bays off Terra del Fuego, and on
the western coast of South America, and they are
also found around New Holland as well as the coast
of Africa. It is in the month of June they visit
the Cape of Good Hope, principally the females,
and for the purpose of bringing forth their young.
The method of fishing this animal is very differ¬
ent from that we have been considering at such
length, and is, upon the whole, a much more easy
operation. According to Lesson, from whom we
principally derive our account, this species is usually
found at no great distance off the coast, and where
the water is beginning to get shallow. When struck,
it often dives to the bottom, the depth being seldom
more than two hundred fathoms; it then returns
to the surface after an interval of a few minutes;
and occasionally dives a second, third, or even a
fourth time. Sometimes it takes a horizontal course,
and “ runs” along shore twenty or thirty miles in a
direct line. When observed by others of the species,
they usually take the alarm, and running off, are
followed by the fast wdiale as long as it is able.
124
WHALE OP THE SOUTHERN SEAS.
The harpooner generally endeavours to strike two
harpoons at the first attack, both of which are at¬
tached to the same line, by which he has a double
hold of the fish. The harpoons are usually thrown
at the whale when at the distance of six or eight
yards, and the lances, which are kept in fine order,
are sometimes used in the same way. Two boats
are considered sufficient to kill an individual of this
species, so that, when it can be accomplished, two
are struck at the same time. Whenever the animal
re-appears on the surface, the fast boat is hoisted up
towards it by means of the line ; thus affording an
opportunity to the harpooner to lance it, and en¬
abling him often to capture his prize without the
assistance of any other boat.
When it is flensed, which is done in the same
manner as in the sperm whale, to be afterwards de¬
scribed, the upper jaw, with all the baleen attached,
is usually hoisted on board. The whalebone is then
divided into junks, and these, at the first leisure,
are subdivided into single blades and stowed away
after the gum is removed. If a storm happen to
arise before the fish is flensed, a hawser is fastened
to it, and the ship rides by it; at the conclusion of
the gale it is brought along side and “ cut in.” If,
however, an interval of more than two or three days
occur before the flensing is commenced, the whale
swells, the blubber becomes impregnated with blood,
and must be abandoned as useless.
GREAT NORTHERN RORQUAL
125
*
Second Genus. —RORQUALUS.*
Characters. No teeth ; baleen short; has a dorsal fin ; and
folds under chin and throat.
RORQUALIS BOREALIS, Cuv.; Less.
PLATE V.
Great Northern Rorqual.—Razor-back and Firmer, of whalers.
Our readers will please to observe that we have,
after the example of Cuvier, adopted the name Ror-
qualus as a generic term, and include in this genus
some species, or at least supposed species, with
which some of them may be familiar. After the
Mysticetus there followed, according to the pre¬
vailing arrangements, first a genus whose principal
distinction was its being supplied with a dorsal fin;
and then another, which, in addition to this third
fin, had certain folds extending from the under lip
along the chest and abdomen. Under the former of
these was included the Gibbar of Lacepede, which
was the same as the Physalis of Linnaeus, and the
Razor-back of whalers; and under the latter, among
others, there was the Jubartes of Lacepede, the
Boops of Linnaeus, and also the Musculus of Lin-
* Rorqmlus , in the Norwegian tongue, means whale with
folds.
126 GREAT NORTHERN RORQUAL.
naeus, the Broad-nosed whale, of Scorseby, and the
Rorqual of Bonnaterre and Lacepede.
But it admits not of a doubt, that, up to the
present time, there exists not the vestige of evidence
in the records of Cetology, of the existence of
the gibbar or physalis. True it is that systematic
writers give very circumstantial accounts of it, but
few, if any, from their own observations; and Mr.
Scorseby, in his interesting notices respecting it, says
it is “ supplied with distinct rugae or sulci whence
it clearly follows it is a true Rorqual. With regard
to the specific differences assigned to the others, we
shall only state, in a word, that as great difficulties
and objections stand in the way of their being ad¬
mitted as established varieties. We do not expressly
deny that some of them may be real species, and
may differ from each other; but we assert, after the
example of Cuvier, that these still remain to be
pointed out and demonstrated; and in the meanwhile
it will be understood, that the remarks which follow
respecting this genus, apply to the facts really ascer¬
tained concerning all the forenamed alleged species.
The northern Rorqual is the largest of the whale
tribe, the mightiest giant of them all, and probably
the most powerful and bulky of created beings. Its
head is to the entire length, as one to four. It
differs from the Mysticetus, in its body being longer
and more slender; in its form being less cylindrical ;
in having a dorsal fin ; in its skin or blubber being
much thinner, usually not exceeding six inches;
in its speed being greater, its action quicker and
GREAT NORTHERN RORQUAL. 127
more restless, and its conduct bolder; in its blowing
being more violent, and its baleen being much shorter
and less valuable.
The cause of this last important difference is very
plain; and may be best illustrated by a glance at
the accompanying sketches, in which there is a side
view, fig. w, Plate i. of the head of the Mysticetus,
and fig. o of the Rorqual. It will at once be
seen that the upper jaw of the former is relatively
larger and much more curved; the intervening
space in both is filled with baleen, which accordingly
must be long in the Mysticetus and short in the
Rorqual; the longest laminaa seldom measuring four
feet.
In Mr. F. Knox's account of the great Rorqual,
which will subsequently be more particularly al¬
luded to, we read that three hundred and fourteen
plates were counted on each side; and on further
examination it was found that these extended
mesially (towards the middle line) only about
fifteen inches, and w r ere then succeeded by a vast
number of smaller plates, which gradually became
less and less, till finally they were converted into
bristles; so that, correctly speaking, there were pro¬
bably not fewer than four or five thousand distinct
plates of whalebone. The baleen, when recent, was
highly elastic and soft, the fringed edge being as
pliable as the hair of the human head, and thus
forming a sieve of the most perfect kind. From the
same source w T e also learn, that the posterior arch of
the palate was so large that it could admit a man,
128
GREAT NORTHERN RORQUAL.
being thus a great vestibule to the windpipe and
gullet; which last was quite closed when first seen,
and appeared as if it would admit with difficulty
a man’s closed fist.
Upon the whole, however, the baleen is coarser
than in the Mysticetus, and the swallow is compa¬
ratively larger; and in both points this is a positive
advantage to the Rorqual, and only in keeping with
its requirements, because the proper food of this
genus is not only the small medusa, shrimps, &c.
which have been depicted on Plate m. as the food of
the Mysticetus, but consists of medusa of a larger
size, and of fish, such as herring, haddock, cod,
salmon, &c .; and there seems no ground to question
the opinion, that these whales often follow in the
tract of these fish, and devour them in quantities
which it would not be easy accurately to conceive.
Thus M. Desmoulins states, that six hundred great
cod and immense quantities of pilchards have been
found in the stomach of a single whale of this
genus.— Diet . Class.
The plicae or folds, whence the genus derives its
name, constitute a singular structure, the precise
use of which has not hitherto been very clearly as¬
certained. John Hunter described it with his usual
accuracy in one of the whales which he examined,
and observed that it must increase the dilatability
and elasticity of the integuments of the part, but
confessed he could not perceive wherefore this
should be, or how it was made useful. Lacepede
also particularly describes it, and it has since been
GREAT NORTHERN RORQUAL. 129
generally mentioned by subsequent authors. It
consists of a number of longitudinal folds, nearly
parallel, which commence under the lower lip, oc¬
cupying the space between the two branches of the
lower jaw, passes down the throat, covering the
whole extent of the chest, from one pectoral fin to
the other, and somewhat further, and terminates far
down the abdomen. It often happens that two of
these folds are distinct at their extremities, but form
one only in the middle portion. They are of different
width according to the size of the individual, varying
from half an inch to two or three inches. The
external portion of these folds is of the colour of
the neighbouring skin, whilst the parts which are
usually folded in are of a more delicate appearance,
generally of a pale white, and in some species of a
beautiful red colour, corresponding to that of the
lip. M. Lacepede congratulates himself on having
made a great discovery respecting the use of this
structure, which suggested itself whilst examining
certain drawings which were transmitted to him by
Sir Joseph Banks. He supposes it to be a great
bladder placed between the branches of the lower
jaw, extending far underneath the body; and con¬
ceives the whale can fill this pouch with atmospheric
air from the spiracles, so 'as to give it a circum¬
ference of ten or twelve feet. In short, he considers
it as a kind of swimming bladder, by which the
animal raises itself at will towards the surface; and
by it he accounts for the extraordinary agility and
power it displays, in the pursuit and capture of its
VOL. VI. K
130 GREAT NORTHERN RORQUAL.
prey. One of liis plates, his eighth, is supplied for
the express purpose of illustrating its appearance
and size. This account seems generally to have
been received, and is propagated in our latest English
and foreign treatises ; and yet we are persuaded
that it is wholly erroneous. No description has
been given of the canal which conveys the air into
the sack; anatomical observation contradicts the
assertion, and the bladder exhibited in the plates
appears to be nothing more than gas generated by
decomposition, and collected in the loose cellular
membrane of the lower jaw, as it rapidly does in
other parts of the body. We may add, that the pro¬
cess of its formation has been actually witnessed by
Messrs. Quoy and Gaimard. A whale of this species
was killed by the crew of the vessel in which they
sailed. When alive, and during the next day, the
mouth was shut. The day after, this reputed swim¬
ming bladder began to appear, and speedily it pre¬
sented an insuperable obstacle to the shutting of the
jaws ( Voyage , p. 83). The simplest seems the most
plausible, as it is probably the correct account of the
matter. The Rorqual has not, in the upper jaw,
that large segment of a circle in which the Mysti-
, cetus collects its food; but to compensate for this,
has it in the lower: when it opens its prodigious
mouth, the water, rushing in, opens these folds, and
so forms, as it were, a great well in which its prey
is collected; on shutting its mouth and contracting
the folds, it expels the water, whilst the strainer
formed by the baleen retains the fish, &c. which
GREAT NORTHERN RORQUAL. 131
forms its food, and which now become a suitable
morsel, as they are an easy prey*.
This animal attains the vast length of from one
hundred to one hundred and ten feet,—Sir A. Capel
Brooke says, one hundred and twenty (Lapland ,
141) ; with a circumference of thirty or forty, which
is the same as that of the Mysticetus. Mr. Scorseby
remarks, it is seen apparently of the length of a ship,
that is, from ninety to an hundred and ten feet
(Thomsons Ann. of Phil. vi. 314); and, as will
presently appear, it lias more than once been actually
measured at one hundred and five feet. The body
is not cylindrical, hut compressed at the sides, and
angular on the hack. The head is small when com¬
pared with the former genus, and the tail is relatively
somewhat less broad. The dorsal fin is small, and
placed opposite the vent; the pectorals are con¬
siderably distant from the angles of the lips and are
slender, straight, and pointed at the extremities.
The blubber is usually about six or eight inches
thick, and does not yield above eight or ten tons of
oil, sometimes none at all; its colour is a pale bluish
black, or dark bluish grey, somewhat resembling a
sucking Mysticetus.
Its blowing is very violent, and may be heard in
calm weather at a great distance. Though this
species is sometimes mistaken for the Mysticetus,
yet its appearance and action are so different that
it may generally be distinguished. It seldom lies
quietly on the water when blowing, but usually has
* See, too, p. 143.
132
GREAT NORTHERN RORQUAL.
a velocity of four or five miles an liour; and when
it descends, it ver f rarely throws its tail in the air,
which is the general practice of the other.
The Rorqual occurs in great numbers in the Arctic
Seas, especially along the edge of the ice between
Clierie Island and Nova Zembla, and also near Jan
Mayen. Persons trading to Archangel have often
mistaken it for the common whale. It is seldom
seen amidst much ice, and seems to he avoided by
the Mysticetus; and the whalers therefore view its
appearance with concern. It inhabits most generally
in the Spitzhergen quarter, the parallel of from 70°
to 76° ’> hut in summer, when the sea is open, it
advances to the northward as high as the 80° of
latitude.
The Rorqual swims with a velocity at the greatest
of about twelve miles an hour. It is by no means
a timid animal, and usually does not appear to be
revengeful or mischievous. When closely pursued
by boats it manifests little fear, and does not attempt
to outstrip them in the race, but merel/ endeavours
to avoid them, by diving and changing its direction.
If harpooned, or otherwise wounded, it then exerts
all its energies, and escapes with its utmost velocity.
Thus, we can readily credit the story related by
Martin, of the sailors of a small vessel having fixed
their harpoon in one of these Cetae, when it darted
off with extreme velocity, so.much to the astonish¬
ment and surprise of all on board, that, panic struck,
they lost all self-possession, omitted to cut the fatal
cord which connected them to the animal, and
GREAT NORTHERN RORQUAL. 133
were drawn under a vast bank of heavy ice, where
they all perished. This great speed and activity
renders this species a dangerous object of attack,
whilst the small quantity of oil it affords makes
it unworthy of the general attention of fishers.
When struck, it frequently drags the fast boat almost
immediately beyond the reach of assistance, and
speedily out of sight both of boats and ship. Hence
the striker is under the necessity of cutting, the line,
and sacrificing his employers property, for securing
the safety of himself and companions. “ I have
made,” says Mr. Scorseby, “ different attempts to
capture one of these formidable creatures. In the year
1818,1 ordered a general chase, providing against the
danger of having my crew separated from the ship, by
appointing a rendezvous on shore, not far distant, and
preparing against the loss of much line by dividing
it at two hundred fathoms from the harpoon, and
affixing a buoy at the end of it. Thus arranged, one
of these whales was harpooned by a shot from the
harpoon-gun, and another was struck in the com¬
mon method. The former dived with such impe¬
tuosity, that the line was broken by the resistance
of the buoy as soon as it was thrown into the water;
and the other was liberated within a minute by the
division of the line, occasioned, it was supposed, by
the friction against the dorsal fin. Both escaped.
Another was struck by one of my inexperienced har-
pooners, who mistook it for a Mysticetus. It dived
obliquely with such velocity, that 2880 feet of line
were withdrawn from the boat in about a minute of
134
GREAT NORTHERN RORQUAL.
time. This whale was also lost by the breaking of
the line.”
Sometimes, though rarely it would appear, this
species manifests a tendency to retaliate against
its pursuers, and especially when those endeared
to it are attacked. We speak not merely of the
affection of the mother for its young; the fol¬
lowing narrative occurs in Lacepede, and seems
to exhibit no common share of conjugal regard.—
“ The male and female of this species (the jubarte),”
he remarks, “ seem united by the strongest bands of
affection. Duhamel reports that two were taken in
1723, which were swimming along together*, and
•were probably male and female. The one which
remained free exhibited much uneasiness on its com¬
panion being wounded; it then swam to the boat,
and with one stroke of its tail killed three men and
precipitated them into the sea. The two remained
to the last in close company with each other; and
when the one was killed, the other uttered lamentable
and terrible cries.”
But though the regular whalers usually decline
all encounter with this species, yet it is not so with
the natives of the polar regions, whose wants compel
them to make every exertion which promises the
least success, and whose circumstances are frequently
peculiarly favourable. In Lapland they sometimes
yield fifteen tons of oil, and are worth about £.150.
—(Brookes Lapland , 141.) We have met with
two accounts of their mode of attacking it. Thus
the late Sir Charles Giesecki states that the following
GREAT NORTHERN RORQUAL. 135
is the method which the native Greenlanders take
of seeming some of the smaller animals of this
species (the Balaena Boops), which frequent their
coasts in the summer months. Both men and
women engage in the adventure, the former in their
kayacks, the latter in their bomiaks. The men in
their light skiffs follow the whale as close as possible,
mid continue to throw as many harpoons and lances
into him as possible, until he dies of loss of blood;
they then join their canoes together, fasten their
spoil to them, and carry their booty home, where
it is faithfully divided (Art. Greenland , Edin. En-
cyeloped.) ; in the words of one of the most power¬
ful mid interesting poets of the present day:
Trained with inimitable art to float,
Each balanced in his bubble of a boat,
With dexterous paddle steering through the spray,
With poised harpoon to strike his plunging prey ;
As if the skiff, the seamen, oar, and dart,
Were one compacted body, by one heart
With instinct, motion, pulse empow’red to ride
A human nautilus upon the tide.
Montgomery's Greenland.
Sir Arthur de Capell Brooke gives a somewhat
different account of its mode of capture by the
Laplanders on the Finmark coast. They pursue
the animal with all the strength the party can
muster, and wounding it as severely and rapidly
as possible, they leave it. For the time, it escapes
them; but, in the course of a few days, it is
generally found dead on some part of the neigh-
136
GREAT NORTHERN RORQUAL.
bouring coast. The person who finds it imme¬
diately gives notice, and those who were engaged
in the hunt come and identify their property by
their name or mark on the instruments employed.
The finder is then rewarded with a third of the
booty, to which he is by law entitled, whilst the
remainder is shared among the rest. (Travels in
Norway, 300).
As herring and other fish are the occasional if
not habitual food of the Rorqual, and as these often
resort to the estuaries of our rivers and the enclosed
and shallow bays of our coasts, where they are keenly
pursued by the whales, it not unfrequently happens
that even these immense monsters are taken by
surprise, left by the retiring tide, and stranded on
the shore. A curious fact is on record with regard
to one individual, seventy-eight feet long, who had
been for long a keen hunter, and was at last sur¬
prised and cast away. The circumstance, as nar¬
rated by Sir Robert Sibbald in his Phalainologia,
took place at Abercorn in the Frith of Forth in
September 1692. This individual had been for
twenty years known to the fishermen from its pur¬
suit and capture of herring, and had been termed by
them “ the hollie pike” because there w r as a hole in
its dorsal fin, which had been produced by a musket
ball, and therefore supplied a very distinguishing
mark. Its death was considered by them as a
subject of great joy. It has also been frequently
observed, that on an exposed coast, after a great
GREAT NORTHERN RORQUAL.
137
storm, some of these Cetss were cast ashore, injured
by the tremendous sea, or dead from some accidental
cause. When an event of this sort takes place in a
populous district, it never fails to prove at least a
nine days’ wonder, and crowds from far and near
are attracted to behold what no description can ever
adequately represent. These occurrences have some¬
times proved eras in the science, and we shall there¬
fore give a list of the principal of those we have met
with in the records of Cetology.
As already hinted, two have been observed which
measured one hundred and five feet. One of these
was found dead, as mentioned by Scorseby, in Davis
Straits (Arct. Reg. i. 481); and Captain Clarke
measured the skeleton of one near the Columbia
River, which extended to one hundred and five feet.
Allowing five or six feet for the tail, this appears to
be the largest animal of which we have an accurate
measurement (Travels to the Missouri by Captains
Lewis and Clarice , p. 422).
2, 105 feet, as above.
1, 101 feet, stranded on the banks of the Humber in 1750.
1, 95 feet, carried into Ostend in 1827.
1, 84 feet, stranded at Boyne in Banffshire at close of
seventeenth century, as mentioned by Sir R. Sibbald.
1, 83 feet, conveyed to North Berwick in 1831. Messrs.
Knox’s.
1, 82 feet, embayed and killed in Balta Bay, Shetland, in
1817.
1, 78 feet, at Abercom, as above alluded to, in 1692.
2, 70 feet \ one on the coast of Cornwall in 1797, the other
on west coast of Ireland in 1825. Jac. Dub. Phil,
Jour. i.
VOL. VI. L
i
138 GREAT NORTHERN RORQUAL.
1, 63 feet, conveyed into Brighton in 1830. Loudon's Ma¬
gazine^ iv. 163.
1, 57 feet, at Rochefort, in 1827 ; Souty, in Lesson, 345.
1, 52 feet, at Eyemouth, Berwickshire, 1752.
2, 46 feet; one at Burntisland, 1690, Sibbald; ditto, 1761,
Dr. Walker, recorded by Dr. Neil.
1, 43 feet, near Alloa, Frith of Forth, 1808. Dr. Neil.
Besides various others whose dimensions are not given, or
smaller than the above, on the coast of Ireland, in the Western
Isles, the Orkneys, in the Thames, the coast of Holland, &c.
Many of the occurrences above alluded to were
of great moment, in as much as they afforded an
opportunity which men of zeal and science im¬
proved, in the more particular examination of the
structure of the order, and thereby improved our
acquaintance with them: they thus became land¬
marks in the acquisition of knowledge, at which
those who laboured acquired for themselves a well
merited and substantial praise.
In no instance has this zeal been more conspi¬
cuous, than as it was excited by No. 5 in the
above list, found in the neighbourhood of North
Berwick in 1831. It was immediately purchased by
the present proprietors, Dr. Knox and his brother,
Mr. Frederick Knox, the latter of whom superin¬
tended the process of flensing, and for more than
three years with praiseworthy assiduity, carried
on the preparation of the skeleton, and of some
of the soft parts, which were exhibited in 1835, in
Edinburgh and Glasgow, to the admiration of thou¬
sands. To the former of these gentlemen, especially,
men of science will look for some interesting addi-
THE GJ^EAT NORTHERN RORQUAL.
c r.
W
£
1-3
o
fe;
fcl
R*
§
it
PLATE 6’.
GREAT NORTHERN RORQUAL.
139
tions to the present stock of information on this
subject ; and to both of them we are indebted for
the liberty they have given ns of supplying the ac¬
companying accurate representation of the skeleton
(Plate vi.), which cannot but interest our readers,
and for which we thus beg them to accept our best
thanks.
According to the short account published by
Mr. F. Knox, the following are a few of the measure¬
ments of the specimen:
Total length of the skeleton . 78 feet
Length of the head over the vertex 21 —
Length of the bone of the cranium 19 —-
Length of the vertebral column . 57 —
Number of vertebras . . .65
Number of ribs . . . .15 pair
Length of longest rib, the 6th . . 11 feet
Weight of the skeleton . . .28 tons.
The larger vertebrae were fourteen inches in the
diameter of their bodies, and from six to seven feet
from tip to tip of their transverse processes; they
gradually lessened towards the tail, till they did not
exceed a hens egg in bulk. A vertical section of
the skull exhibited a part of its walls more than
three feet in thickness.
It is a specimen of the same species, No. 4 of the
above list, which forms our Plate v., the skeleton
of which was exhibited in London in 1833, and
is now we believe being exhibited throughout the
United States of America. We apprehend we may
safely state this to be the skeleton of the largest
animal that has ever been preserved, and, like the
] 40 GREAT NORTHERN RORQUAL.
former, could not be bebeld without exciting the
liveliest astonishment. It was a female.
The total length was ... 95 feet
Length of the head . . . 22 —
Length of lower jaw-bone . . 25 —
Length of the spine . . . 69 —
Weight of the skeleton . . 35 tons.
And as animals of these gigantic dimensions are
sometimes cast ashore in our day, so were they
many centuries ago in other countries, and probably
of other genera. A curious notice is made on this
point, at a very early date in the records of history.
Nearchus, general to Alexander the Great, under¬
took, as is well known, a voyage from the mouth
of the Indus to the Persian Gulf in the year 327
before the common era. In this perilous voyage
Nearchus coasted along the country of the Iehthyo-
pagi, considered by Ptolemy as a part of Karmania.
In his narrative we are informed that these people
live generally in small cabins, the better sort only
having houses, which are constructed of the bones
of whales thrown upon the coast. When the flesh
is rotted off they make planks and doors of such as
are flat, and beams and rafters of the ribs and jaw¬
bones ; and many of the monsters, it is said, are
found a hundred and fifty feet in length. Strabo
confirms this statement of Arrian. (Vincent’s
Nearchus.—-Kerr s Voyages , xviii. 71*)
We cannot dismiss this short notice respecting
the stranding of the Cetae, and be it remarked they
are not always of the size indicated in the table,
without stating that the circumstance may always be
GREAT NORTHERN RORQUAL. 141
turned to an important economical purpose in con¬
nexion with agriculture. It is well known that the
richest manure is formed from decayed animal matter,
and hence the great yalue of bone manure as an article
of commerce and of increased productiveness. Now,
no animal matter can exceed in richness that which
is supplied by the fatty matter so abundantly con¬
tained throughout the whole frame, hones and all,
of the Cetacea. Hence the late Sir John Sinclair,
with that enthusiasm for his country’s good which
ever characterized him, called the attention of the
agriculturist to this subject; and, more lately,
Mr. William Bell has supplied an interesting notice
to the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, vol. i.,
concerning the use of dreg , or coarse whale oil, in
converting peat moss, &c. into rich manure, and
finally into fine mould. His experiments on this
point were highly successful, and the result of his
promised additional observations will he esteemed
by the practical farmer.
142
THE LESSER RORQUAL.
PLATE VII.
\
Rorqualus Minor, Knox .-—Bal. Rostrata, Fab., Hunter .—
Balsenoptera Acuto-Rostrata, Laoepede , Scorseby .
For the undisputed establishment of this species,
the scientific world is indebted to the zeal and assi¬
duity of Dr. Knox ; to whom, and also to his
brother, our readers, and still more we ourselves,
are especially indebted for the accompanying repre¬
sentation of a striking drawing in the possession of
the latter gentleman. It is true that Fabricius de¬
scribed this species with his accustomed elegance
and precision; Mr. Hunter likewise met with and
delineated it, having probably examined it with care,
as he makes frequent allusion to it in his published
works; Mr. Scorseby s work also contains an exact
representation, supplied through Dr. Trail. But
notwithstanding all this, the details collected were
so meagre and slight, that not only were much
ignorance and error prevalent concerning it, hut
many naturalists, of whom Cuvier, in 1823, was
one, were led to doubt even its existence: “ Mais
qui oserait soutenir que ces dfferences ne venoient
pas de 1’age.” (Oss. Foss. v. 366.)
Dr. Knox's specimen was taken in February,
THE LESSER RORQTIAJ
PLATE
THE LESSER RORQUAL. 143
1834, near Queensferry, Frith of Forth. It was a
young one, measuring only ten feet. On obtaining
possession of it, Dr. K. thought of suspending it
horizontally as in the posture of swimming. “ By
this means,” he remarks, “ the proper character of
the head and mouth were given, and this so much
altered the appearance of the animal, that the author
thinks all previous views extremely incorrect, be¬
sides tending to mislead the naturalist as to the real
capacity of the mouth of the genus, which is really
very great. The lower part of the mouth is an
enormous pouch or hag which, in the great northern
Rorqual, must at times contain an incredible volume
of' water. The tongue was free towards the apex,
almost as much as in man.” (Notice of a Paper
read to Royal Soc. of Edin.)
Passing by this observation on the tongue, which,
so far as we know, is original, we cannot but felici¬
tate our readers on the simple hut ingenious thought
which led this gentleman to place the individual as
much as possible in its natural position, whereby,
we agree with him, a new character was given to
the appearance of its most striking feature, and
every thing like doubt removed concerning the true
use of that peculiar structure, which hitherto has
perplexed all naturalists who have directed their
attention to it. It was from this discovery that,
when treating of the Great Rorqual (on p. 1.31), we
did not hesitate to assign this use, viz. that of a
pouch for augmenting the capacity of the mouth to
the part; and no adequate judge, we apprehend.
144
THE LESSER RORQUAL.
can look at the Plate, without being irresistibly
impressed with the conviction that this is its true
and appropriate use. This examination has also,
we apprehend, put an end to all the idle hypotheses
concerning the alleged swimming bladder under the
tongue, which were grounded on a mistake of Sir
Joseph Banks, which was at once rejected by John
Hunter, hut which has misled the accurate Lesson,
as well as more recent writers on the subject.
But we have yet to state how Dr. Knox esta¬
blished that the Lesser Rorqual must be considered
as a distinct species. He has done so as a com¬
parative anatomist, in a single instance, and for
ever. We have already expressed our obligations
to him as the proprietor of the skeleton of the Great
Rorqual; he also possesses that of the one now
under review, and the examination of their osteo-
logy gives the following result:
Vertebrae,
cervical.
Dorsal.
Remaining.
Great Rorqual
7
13
43
Smaller ditto
7
11
30
Total.
63
48
Other differences than those involved in this single
statement might be mentioned, which quite agree
with more popular observations; but these, at this
time, must suffice.
Before laying Dr. K.’s short notice aside, we must
introduce his remarks concerning the valves of the
spiracles. “ Two bolster-like substances filled the
canals, which are withdrawn from them at the
moment of breathing, by muscles provided for that
THE LESSER RORQUAL.
145
purpose; the mechanism is admirable, and would
sustain a pressure from above, though the animal
were to descend thousands of fathomsalso con -
ceming that mass of vascular tissue, closely resem¬
bling the “ erectile,” which he discovered within
the cranium; “ it filled a very large proportion of
the interior of the cranium, extending thence into
the spinal canal, three-fourths of whose cavity it
also occupiedand finally, his statement “ that its
olfactory nerves were at least as large as those of
man.” All these observations suggest many im¬
portant considerations, on which our space forbids
us to enter, but which we trust wall speedily be
offered to the public by this indefatigable observer.
We have already stated that the specimen now
before us was a young one. Both Mr. Hunter’s and
that supplied by Dr. Trail measured seventeen feet;
another taken at Cherbourg, mentioned by Lace-
pede, was fifteen feet: twenty-five is stated as the
ordinary limit of its length, and it is therefore the
smallest of the known Rorquals. We refer to our
plate as a substitute for all remarks on its external
characters. Its baleen is white and short; the rosy
tint of the plicas was mentioned by Fabricius, whose
account is still the best we have seen. It frequents
the rocky bays of Greenland, especially during sum¬
mer, and also the coasts of Iceland and Norway;
sometimes, though rarely, coming into lower lati¬
tudes. Its food is the arctic salmon and other fish.
In its habits it is very active; so much so, that
though much valued in northern climates for the
VOL. vi. M
146
THE LESSER RORQUAL.
esteemed delicacy of its flesh, yet the natives never
attempt to harpoon it. They wound it with their
darts and spears, and, after a fortunate hunt, hope
to discover it, dead and stranded. Its oil also is
regarded as peculiarly delicate, and is esteemed by
the Icelanders as an article of their Materia Medica.
RORQUAL OF THE SOUTHERN SEAS.
Rorqualus Australis, Cuvier .—Baloenoptera Australis, Lesson.
As after our account of the Greenland whale we
added a few remarks concerning another mysticetus,
which was an inhabitant of the southern seas, so
the only other existing species of rorqual we shall
here introduce to the notice of our readers, is one
which within these few years has been discovered
in the Southern Ocean, and ascertained to he a new
and distinct species. These discoveries recall to
mind an interesting remark of Buflbn’s, in which he
states, that every part of the globe, according to
its parallel of latitude, has animals peculiar to itself.
It is true, this law has not very frequently been
demonstrated in reference to the inhabitants of the
ocean, although it has been remarked that the
place of their habitation is to be reckoned, not by
the sea which they frequent, but rather by the
latitude; and hence it is alleged, that the intertro-
RORQUAL OF THE SOUTHERN SEAS. 147
pical zone includes the same species throughout its
whole circumference, and that as we remove from
it, both northward and southwards, each parallel
has its peculiar varieties, whose limits are terminated
by the different meridians of the glohe. In the
present state of our knowledge, it would be going
too far to affirm that none of the Cetacea plough
the wave indifferently in every clime, but, as we have
seen, Mr. Scorsehy decidedly states the mysticetus
has never been seen in European seas; and since
that time, it has been proved that there is both a
distinct mysticetus and rorqual in the Southern
Ocean. This then is sufficient to excite renewed
attention to the subject, and the inquiry should
henceforward be prosecuted with fresh zeal.
The Southern Rorqual was first examined at the
Cape of Good Hope by M. Delalande. Its most
evident peculiarity is a long dorsal fin, which, instead
of being placed near the tail, is situated immediately
over the pectorals. The body is black above and
pure white beneath, except within the folds, which
are of a well marked rosy hue. Cuvier has ac¬
curately detailed the differences in the osteology,
and to his work we shall refer the scientific reader
(Oss. Foss. v. 372); only remarking it has seven
cervical vertebrae, fourteen dorsal, and fourteen pair
of ribs, and thirty-one lumber and caudal, making
a total of fifty-two vertebrae.
The Southern Rorqual but rarely approaches the
coasts of the Cape, since it is stated that only two
or three are observed « there during the year; nor
148 RORQUAL OP THE SOUTHERN SEAS.
does any one think of pursuing it, since its great
power and velocity make it difficult and dangerous
of capture, and the product by no means repays the
risk and labour.
It is manifestly this species which Dr. Foster
states that he encountered near Terra del Fuego,
when returning to England with the illustrious
Cook. As illustrative of its habits we shall give an
extract:— 44 When between Terra del Fuego and
Statten Island, Lieutenant Pickersgill was sent into
Success Bay, and on this occasion it was remarked
that no less than thirty large whales played about
them in the water. Whenever they were seen
blowing to windward, the whole ship was infected
with a most destestable rank and poisonous stench,
which went off in the space of two or three minutes.
Sometimes these huge animals lay on their backs,
and with their long pectoral fins beat the surface of
the sea, which always caused a great noise, equal to
the explosion of a swivel. This kind of play has
doubtless given rise to the mariners’ story of a fight
between the thresher and the whale; the former of
which is said to leap out of the water in order to
fall heavily upon the latter. Here we had an op¬
portunity of observing the same exercise many times
repeated, and discovered that all the belly and under
side of the fins and tail are of a white colour,
whereas the rest is black. As we happened to be
only sixty yards from one of these animals, we
perceived a number of longitudinal furrows on its
belly. Besides flapping with their fins in the water
RORQUAL OF THE SOUTHERN SEAS. 149
these unwieldy animals, of forty feet in length, some¬
times fairly leapt into the air, and dropt down again
with a heavy fall. The prodigious quantity of
power required to raise such a vast creature out of
the water is astonishing, and their peculiar economy
cannot but give room to much reflection.” (Cook’s
in Kerrs Voyages , xv. 4.)
Though not without some hesitation, yet we are
inclined to believe that this is the species which by
the southern whalers is denominated the black fish
or black whale , and which most frequently they are
solicitous to avoid. It is this whale which Captain
Colnett states that he saw, in innumerable shoals,
on the shores of California. (Voy.to the S. Pacific.)
One other of the habits of this species we shall
mention. The black fish, of all other whales, most
frequently place themselves in a perpendicular posi¬
tion, with the head only above water, presenting in
this position a most extraordinary appearance when
seen from a distance, resembling large black rocks in
the midst of the ocean; this posture they seem to
assume for the purpose of surveying more perfectly,
or more easily, the surrounding expanse. (Beale.)
The southern seas supply the appropriate food of
these whales in the richest luxuriance. Thus,
M. Lesson, who spent a considerable time in these
latitudes, states, that the whale does not so much
seek its food as its food seeks it. The sea is often
very rough, and the height and violence of the
waves is such, that the spray in breaking over the
vessel brings along with it great quantities of medusa
150 RORQUAL OF THE SOUTHERN SEAS.
and flying fish. It is under these circumstances
that these giants are most active, as if enjoying the
storm, and then appear busiest in pursuing their
prey.
FOSSILE RORQUALS, ETC.
We have already hinted that most of the Cetacea
have been found in a fossile state, and we scarcely
know any thing which is more calculated to de¬
monstrate the extraordinary revolutions which have
taken place on the surface of the globe, than the fact
that specimens of these great whales are now to be
found in the bowels of the earth, in the centre of
mighty continents, and elevated high in vast ranges
of mountains. Thus there are distinct records of
portions of skeletons of whales having been dis¬
covered on the continent of Europe, as well as in
various parts of Britain, &c.
One of these was discovered by M. Cortesi in
1806 on the east flank of Monte Pulgnasco , one of the
Apennines, about six hundred feet under the summit,
which is itself elevated twelve hundred feet above the
neighbouring plain. In this part, the hill consists of
regular beds of bluish clay, inclined towards the north,
and filled with marine shells. The whale was found
lying in the same direction with the strata which in¬
closed it, the head pointing northwards. This skele¬
ton was nearly perfect, although some of the ribs were
somewhat out of their proper position. The vertebras
were lying on the right side; a great many teeth of
FOSSILE RORQUALS, ETC«
151
a small species of stark, and innumerable shells
surrounded it, especially a small variety of oyster,
many of which were attached to the left side of the
vertebrae, lying uppermost. The regular attachment
of these oysters is well worthy of consideration, as it
goes to show that they must have been fixed to their
position while alive, and consequently, that the ske¬
leton had long lain at the bottom of the ocean.
The head is six feet long, and the vertebras
occupied a space of fifteen feet, giving twenty-one
feet for the whole length of the skeleton. Ac¬
cording to Cuvier, the form of the head presents, at
one and the same time, all the characters of a new
sub-genus and of a distinct species. The other
hones agree with the indications supplied by the
cranium. It had twelve pair of ribs, the largest of
which, along its convexity, was three feet seven
inches ; the vertebrae were forty-one in number. In
the Diet. Class. d’Hist. Nat. this species is denomi¬
nated Balcma Cuvieri by M. Desmoulins.
M. Cortesi discovered another skeleton in 1816,
in the same kind of strata, and in a neighbouring
valley. It was not in such good preservation, and
could not so easily be disengaged from the surround¬
ing rock. Its head was only four feet long, and
the total length twelve feet, five inches. It was
situated at a lower level than the other, at 1200
feet under the summit of Monte Pulgnasco, and
1400 feet under that of Monte Grogo, the two
nearest hills. This has been designated, by the
authority last quoted, B. Cortesii.
152 FOSSILE RORQUALS, ETC.
A cetaceous animal of much larger dimensions
was discovered in 1775 in Paris. A wine merchant
in La Rue Dauphine, while cutting trenches in his
cellar, discovered a fossile bone of considerable
dimensions in a yellowish and sandy clay, which
appears to he the natural soil of the locality.
Solicitous to spare the labour necessary for its en¬
tire extraction, he broke it, and raised a portion
weighing two hundred weight. This attracted the
attention of the curious; a cast was taken by
Lamanon, and a sketch and description were pub¬
lished in the Jour, de Physique for 1781. This
cast, with additional sketches, fell into the hands of
Cuvier, and he, with that success which attended
all his labours in this department, detected it to be
a portion of the right temporal bone of a whale.
He compared it with corresponding portions of
others, and concluded that the length of its head
was about sixteen feet, and that the total length
of the animal to which it belonged could not be
less than fifty-four feet, without including the tail
or lips, which would raise its size to about sixty
feet. Cuvier moreover remarks, that although this
size agrees with that of the mysticetus, yet the
details of the shape, and the comparison of the pro¬
portions, indicated decided differences. His con¬
clusion is, that, according to all appearance, this
fragment belongs to a cetaceous animal of a species
which is unknown, even among fossiles.
Several remains of fossile whales of great dimen¬
sions have been discovered, deposited in marine
FOSSILE RORQUALS, ETC.
153
diluvium in various parts of Scotland. Three in¬
stances of this sort have been particularly pointed
out. One of these occurred at Airthrey, on the
Forth, near Alloa. The bones belonging to an animal
about seventy-two feet long, were imbedded in clay,
twenty feet higher than the surface of the highest
tide of the river Forth at the present day; and are
now deposited in the Royal Edinburgh Museum-
See “ Mr Bald on the Skeleton of a Whale,” Edin.
Phil. Jour. i. 393. Another consisted of one ver¬
tebra only, found twelve feet above the level of
the sea at Strathpeffer, Ross-shire, as described by
Sir George Mackenzie in vol. x. of the Edin. Phil.
Trans. The third was found at Dunmore Park,
Stirlingshire. The bones of this specimen belong
to an individual seventy or seventy-five feet long;
and are imbedded in clay twenty feet higher than
the present level of the Forth.— Edin.'Phil. Jour.
xi. p. 220. 415. The exact species to which these
remains belong has not yet been determined.
In Loudon’s Magazine for 1831, p. 164, the fol¬
lowing statement occurs :—“ Mr. Manted, about two
years ago, discovered, on Brighton Cliffs, part of a
jaw-bone, nine feet long, of a whale in a fossile state.
It was lying included in the ancient diluvial shingle of
the cliff, in which the teeth and bones of elephants are
' also found.” This chcumstance is mentioned by Mr.
Mantell in his Geology of the South-east of England ,
. 1833, p. 42. He moreover states that a narwhal and
porpoise have been found in alluvial deposits of the
district; but scarcely any particulars are given.
VOL. IV. N
N
154
f
Third Genus— CACHALOT. *
The general characters which belong to this genus are the great
head, but no baleen •, teeth in the lower jaw only ; spiracle
single ; supplying the spermaceti and ambergris of com- >
merce,
THE SPERMACETI WHALE.
PLATE VIII.
Cachalot, Cuvier .—Physeter Catadon. Linn .—Grand Cachalot,
Bonnat .—Cachalot Macroeephalus, Lacepede , Deimaret , &c.
Some of our readers may perhaps he surprised that
under the generic term Cachalot we introduce to
their notice only one species of this variety of whale.
This we do, not because we deny the existence of
others; far from it, hut only because these others
have not hitherto been accurately described or esta¬
blished. Desmaret but a few years ago admitted
three suh-genera and seven species; and Lacepede
has three genera and eight species, including his
Cachalots, physalus, and pliyseters. Every one who,
previous to our own days, had attempted to reconcile
the many contradictory accounts which have been
given of this extraordinary animal, seems in his turn
* Cachalot from Cachou , a tooth, in the Basque language.
TITE SPERMACETI WHALE
PLATE 8
I
THE SPERMACETI WHALE. 155
to have been foiled; and it was reserved for Cuvier
to cut at all events, if not to unravel the knot. He
remarks, “ the history of this animal is so perplexed,
so many beings have been confounded with it, and
the species have been so wantonly multiplied, that,
to obtain some precision on the subject, I have been
necessitated to review, chronologically, every thing
that naturalists have written on the point.” After
making this review, he concludes with these words:
“ Will it now then be regarded as great temerity in
me, after having produced the ideas of so many
learned men, to maintain that, up to the present
time, there is no ground to suppose that there is
more than a single species of Cachalot V
And as, till the time of Cuvier, there was the
greatest confusion regarding alleged species, so, till
a much more recent date, there was an almost un¬
accountable paucity of information regarding its
real habits and history; though, in a national and
commercial point of view, it is second in interest
only to the Mysticetus. From the difficulty of ex¬
amining these animals, and the few opportunities
presented to zoologists, there is really very little at
all satisfactory about them in the annals of Cetology,
and even the economical notices are but few and
meagre. We rejoice to say, that this deficiency has
to a considerable extent been supplied during the past
year by a gentleman, who, for upwards of two years,
was engaged in its capture, and who read a paper
upon it to the Eclectic Society of London in .1835.
When engaged in the fishery, Mr. Beale, who is a
156
THE SPERMACETI WHALE.
surgeon, and was, we presume, professionally em¬
ployed, had no thought of publication, and therefore
overlooked many circumstances which would other¬
wise have engaged his attention. But notwith¬
standing this, he has judged wisely, we conceive, in
complying with the request of his friends to furnish
such information as he had; and we cannot but
proffer him our best thanks, and w T araily recommend
his little work to all who are curious in natural his¬
tory. It will appear in the sequel that he supplies
by far the most copious and satisfactory information
on the subject.
We take our description very much from that
afforded by Cuvier (Oss. Foss. v. 339). Externally,
according to the most authentic accounts, it is one
of the largest Cetacea, attaining the length of seventy
and eighty feet; its head is very large in all dimen¬
sions, and its length does not appear to have been
much exaggerated w T hen stated to be about a third
of the wdiole body; the snout is very obtuse, and
apparently truncated ; the lower jaw, very narrow,
is received between the upper lips as in a furrow, the
teeth entering, w T hen the mouth is shut, into cavities
on the edge of the palate. The blow-hole, twelve
inches long, in form of an /, is on the anterior ex¬
tremity of the head, in the centre of a round protu¬
berance, which is formed of thick fibres, which act as
a sphincter. The pectorals are small and obtuse; there
is a small dorsal protuberance only, far down the
back; and sometimes two or three smaller ones ;
the tail is very large. The colour, above, is a blackish
THE SPERMACETI WHALE. 157
and somewhat greenish-grey; below it is whitish, as
also round the eyes. The immense cavity at the
upper part of the head, covered only by a tendinous
but very resisting integument, is divided interiorly
into compartments, also tendinous, which commu¬
nicate with one another, and into cells filled with
oil, which is fluid when the animal is alive, and
which, when it is dead, takes the concrete form with
which we are familiar, under the name of spermaceti;
and which, very absurdly, was long regarded as the
brain, which occupies a very small space in the interior
of the cranium. The spermaceti is also distributed
along the back, and in many other parts of the
body, in a way which is not yet clearly explained.
The ambergris , again, is found in the intestinal
canal, hut it has not yet been ascertained in what
precise part and under what exact circumstances.
The skin is so dense and insensible in its nature, that
usually large shells attach themselves to it as to a
rock, and there fix their permanent abode : these
shells, which are very numerous, are sometimes mis¬
taken for white patches of the skin. The eyes are
alleged to he remarkably small, unequal, and the left
often useless. This want of symmetry about the eye
and other parts of the face seems a curious circum¬
stance, which, however, is not confined to this species.
The blowing-tubes are likewise very unequal, that on
the right side not being one-fourth so large as that
on the left. This great size of the left nostril points
out the direction of the blowing apparatus, and ex¬
plains the circumstance first mentioned, we believe,
158
THE SPERMACETI WHALE.
by Schewediawer in the Phil. Tram. 1783, that
the Cachalots often project the column towards the
left side.
When we turn from the classical description of
Cuvier to the more popular statement of Beale, we
find that, though there is a general agreement, yet
there are also several discrepancies; as there is like¬
wise between his pictorial representation (see PI. ix.)
and those which had been previously published;
of which we consider our Plate vm., taken from
Mr. Robertson’s in the Philosoph. Trans, as the most
authentic and the best. Whether these discrepancies
arise from differences of species, time alone can show.
He perfectly agrees as to the size, making it eighty
feet, and adds, that its largest circumference seldom
exceeds thirty or thirty-five feet. The colour over
the greater part of the surface is very dark; in parts
quite black, on the sides it assumes a lighter tint,
and on the breast is silvery grey. Sometimes it is
piebald. “ Old bulls,” as the old grown whales are
called by the fishers, have generally a portion of
grey on their nose, and they are then said to be
grey-headed. The blubber in a large whale, on the
breast, is about fourteen inches thick, and on most
other parts of the body it measures from eight to
eleven inches. This covering the southern whalers
call the blanket; it is of a light-yellow colour, and
when melted down yields the sperm oil. Mr. Beale
does not corroborate, or rather, by saying nothing
about it, contradicts the statement regarding the
want of symmetry in the eyes and the blow-holes.
THE SPERMACETI WHALE.
159
The opening to the ear, he states, is of sufficient
size to admit a small quill. The throat is capacious
enough to give passage to the body of a man, in this
respect presenting a strong contrast to the contracted
gullet of the Greenland whale. According to Mr.
Beale, the peculiarity of the sperm whale, which
strikes every beholder, is the unwieldy bulk of the
head : but this, instead of being an impediment,
is conducive to its lightness and agility, for the
greatest part of it containing oil, which is lighter
than water, gives the head a tendency to rise so
far above the surface as to elevate the blow-hole for
the purpose of respiration ; and should the animal
wish to increase its speed to the utmost, the narrow
lower part of the head, which bears some resem¬
blance to the cut-water of a ship, is the only part
exposed to the pressure of the water in front, thus
enabling it to pass with the greatest velocity and
ease through the ocean.
One of the characteristics we have mentioned
as generally stated, is, that the teeth are confined to
the lower jaw; and this as a popular character is
a very good one. Literally speaking, however, it is
not accmately true. Teeth in the upper jaw have
been seen and described by Fabricius, and they
are also mentioned by the Abbe Lecoz and by An¬
derson : they are, however, wholly rudimentary, are
hidden under the jaws, and can scarcely therefore be
used by the animal.
Mr. Beale’s observations on the swimming of this
whale are furious: he states that when undisturbed
ICO
TEE SPERMACETI WHALE.
it passes tranquilly along just below the surface of
the water, at the rate of about three or four miles
an hour, its progress being effected by a gentle oblique
motion of the tail from side to side : when proceed¬
ing at its usual rate, the body lies horizontally, the
water by its progress being somewhat disturbed, is
known by the whalers under the name of “ white
waterand, from its greater or less appearance, an
experienced eye can, from the distance of several
miles, judge of the rate at which the whale is ad¬
vancing : in this mode of swimming it is able to
obtain a velocity of about seven miles an hour.
When it swims at a more rapid rate, the action of the
tail is altered ; the water is struck directly upwards
and doAvnwards, and each time the blow is made with
the inferior surface, the head sinks down eight or
ten feet, and when the blow is reversed, it rises out
of the water, presenting to it only the sharp cut-
Avater portion. The blow with the upper surface
appears to be by far the most powerful, and as, at
the same time, the resistance of the broad part of
the head is removed, tins appears to be the principal
means of rapid progression. This mode of SAvim-
ming (see Plate ex.) is what is called going head
out; and in this way the whale can attain a speed
of ten or twelve miles an hour, which is probably
its greatest velocity.
According to Beale, the food of the Sperm Whale,
when in deep seas, which he regards its usual resort,
is the sepia octapus , a molluscous animal, called
“ squid” by the sailors; and Avhen near shore, a fish
THE SPERMACETI WHALE
Beale
PLATE
.
• i
\
’
-
; & ■ >: 'r. '■
’ * _
' - ,
.
•*'
THE SPERMACETI WHALE.
161
of the size of a moderate salmon, which abounds in
the bays and creeks. He remarks, it is difficult to
conceive how so large an animal can ever catch a
sufficient quantity of such animals if it has to pursue
them individually, and the more so, as neither of
those specified are known to exist in shoals or
closely congregated. Tire theory of the sailors on
the point is, that when one of these Cetas is inclined
to feed, it descends a certain depth, and there re¬
mains as quiet as possible, opening its enormous
mouth, and allowing the lower jaw to hang down at
a right angle with the body. The internal parts of
the mouth, and the teeth, being of a white glistening
colour, are supposed to attract its prey, and when a
sufficiency is within the mouth, the jaw is closed and
the morsel is seized. Mr. Beale adopts this opinion,
and thinks it confirmed by two singular facts which
he adduces; first, that of a whale he met with, which
must have been long blind, and was yet found in
excellent condition when captured ; and, secondly,
the frequent occurrence of great deformity of the
lower jaw, so as to make the capture of small
bodies impossible, and yet animals so circumstanced
are as rich in oil as healthy ones. The latter de¬
formities, we may remark in passing, arise from the
severe contests which the animals maintain against
each other, in which the jaws are closely locked,
and the force mutually exerted is enormous.
We have entered into these details as they em¬
body the opinion of observers, which we would treat
with respect ; and also, because so far as the squid
VOL. vi. o
THE SPERMACETI "WHALE.
and fish are concerned, it is a fact that they hare
often been found in the stomach after death, and so
constitute the occasional food of this whale. We
would, however, venture to suggest to those who
may have opportunities of observing, whether this
whale may not also frequently resort to the me¬
dusae and minute fish, which, in so remarkable a
manner, supply food to some of the smaller, as
well as to the other genera of the gigantic whales.
That there is an abundant supply of this provender,
both in the Antarctic Ocean and the more smiling
latitudes of the Southern Seas, can easily he proved
by a reference to Lesson’s statements as on p. 149,
and also by other observations. Captain Colnett
on one occasion remarks, “ The set of the currents
on the coast of Chili may at all times be disco¬
vered, by noticing the direction of large beds of
small blubber with which the coast abounds, and
from which the water derives a colour like that
of blood: I have often been engaged for a whole
day in passing through various sets of themand
again, when approaching the southern point of
America; “ during this forenoon we passed several
fields of spawn, which caused the water to bear the
appearance of barley covering the surface of a bank.”
(Voyage\ &c. p. 170 and 10.) Orbigny also re¬
marks, that there are immense tracts off the coast of
Brazil filled with small creatures, so numerous as to
impart a red colour to the sea; large portions are
thus highly coloured, and receive from the whalers
the name of Banc die Bresil. This bank extends
TIIE SPERMACETI WHALE.
163
along a great part of the coast of Brazil, keeping at
nearly the same distance. He also states, that
another similar bank occurs near Cape Horn in
57° south latitude. Statements of this sort could
easily be multiplied; and hence we cannot but
suppose that this kind of food which is ascertained
to afford such rich nourishment to the other great
Cetacea, may very possibly be appropriated by the
. Sperm Whale to the same purpose.
The Sperm Whale is remarkably distinguished
from its congeners by its blowing, so that it may
be recognized at a great distance even by the most
inexperienced whaler. When at the surface for
the purpose of respiration, it usually remains still;
but occasionally makes a gentle progress during the
whole process. If the water be smooth, the first part
observed is the hump, projecting two or three feet
above the surface: at very regular intervals of time
the snout emerges, at the distance of forty or fifty
feet; from the extremity of the snout the jet is
thrown up, and when seen from a distance, appears
thick, low, and bushy, and of a white colour; it is
formed, says Mr. Beale, by the air expired forcibly
through the spiracle, acquiring its white colour from
minute particles of water, previously lodged in the'
external fissure: it is projected at an angle of 45^
in a slow and continuous manner, for about three
seconds, and may be discovered at the distance of
four or five miles.
The regularity with which the actions connected
with breathing are performed is very remarkable.
164
THE SPERMACETI WHALE.
The length of time this whale remains at the sur¬
face, the number of spoutings made on one occasion,
the intervals between them, and the time it remains
beneath, are all, when the animal remains undis¬
turbed, as regular in succession and duration as it is
possible to imagine. With different individuals the
time varies, but in each the several acts are minutely
regular; and this is of considerable use to the fisher,
for when the periods of any particular whale are
once noticed, he knows to a moment when to ex¬
pect it again at the surface, and how long it will
remain there. Immediately after each spout, the
nose sinks under water, scarcely a second interven¬
ing for the act of inspiring, which must consequently
he done very quickly. There is no sound caused
by the inspiration, and very little by the expira¬
tion.
In a “ large bull,” so an old male is called, the
time from the termination of one spouting to that
of another is ten seconds; during six of these the
snout is under water, three are occupied by the
expiration, and one by the inspiration ; and at each
breathing time, the whale makes from sixty to
seventy respirations, and therefore remains ten or
eleven minutes at the surface. When this is ended,
or, as the sailors say, it has had “ its spoutings out,”
the head sinks slowly, the posterior part of the body
appears above water, the tail is lifted high into the
air, and the animal having thus assumed a straight
position, descends perpendicularly to an unknown
depth: this act is performed with great regularity
THE SPERMACETI WHALE.
165
and slowness. It continues hidden under w T ater
for an hour and ten minutes; some will remain
only for an hour, and others for an hour and twenty
minutes, hut these are exceptions. The females
remain on the surface for a shorter time, and as
might be expected, ascend more frequently to re¬
spire : they come up about every twenty minutes.
The times of the young whales seem regulated by
their respective ages and sizes.
When disturbed or alarmed, this regularity in the
breathing is no longer observed; for the instant a
“ bull” is disturbed, as by the approach of a boat,
he immediately plunges under the wave, though he
may not have been on the surface half his time ; he
will then soon rise again, not far distant, and will
complete his time. In this case, generally, also he
sinks without previously assuming the perpendicular
position, and with remarkable rapidity, leaving a
sort of vortex in the place he lately occupied. When
urging his rapid course through the ocean, in that
mode which is called going “ head out,” he spouts
every time the head is raised above the wave, and,
under these circumstances of violent exertion, as
might be expected, the respiration is much more
hurried than usual.
This leviathan is, like the mysticetus, remark¬
ably timid, and is readily alarmed by the approach
of any unlooked for object. When frightened,
the w'hale is said by sailors to be u gallied,” pro¬
bably galled; and in this state it performs many
actions in a manner very different from the usual
166
TIIE SPERMACETI WHALE.
mode. One of these is wliat is called “ sweeping,”
which consists in moving the tail slowly from side
to side on the surface of the water, as if feeling
for any object that may he near. This whale has
also an extraordinary fashion of rolling over and
over on the surface, and especially when harpooned;
and in this case it will sometimes coil an amazing
length of line around it. But one of its most sur¬
prising feats, as has been mentioned of the genera
already described, is leaping completely out of the
water, or “breaching,” as it is called. The mode
in which this appears to he done, is by its descend¬
ing to a certain depth, and then making several
powerful and rapid strokes with its tail, thus im¬
parting great velocity to the body before it reaches
the surface, when it darts completely out of the
water. The body forms, when just emerged and
at its greatest elevation, an angle of 45°, the tail
being parallel with the surface; in falling, the
body rolls over on the side : it seldom breaches
more than twice or thrice at a time, and in quick
succession. This performance may be seen in a
clear day at a distance of six miles from the mast¬
head. As has also been previously stated regarding
the mysticetus, “ lob tailing” is another frequent
and favourite amusement with this genus.
The Sperm Whale is a gregarious animal, and the
herds are of two kinds, the one consisting of females,
and the other of young and not fully grown males;
the latter are again generally subdivided into groups
according to their ages. These herds are called
THE SPERMACETI WHALE. 187
“ schools,” and occasionally consist of two, four, or
even six hundred. With each herd of females seve¬
ral large hulls are always to be found, the lords of
the herd, or, as they are called, the “ schoolmasters.”
These males are extremely jealous of intruders, and
fight fiercely to maintain their rights.
The full grown male whales, or “ large whales,”
almost always go alone in search of food ; and when
they are seen in company, they are supposed to be
making passages from one feeding ground to another.
The “ large whale” is generally very incautious, and,
if alone, is attacked without difficulty, and generally
easily killed ; as he frequently, after receiving the
first plunge of the harpoon, appears hardly to feel
it, but continues lying like a log of wood before he
makes any attempt to escape. Large whales are
sometimes, however, remarkably cunning and full
of courage, when they will commit dreadful havock
'with their tail and jaws.
According to Beale, the female breeds at all sea¬
sons, and the time of her gestation is “ not very
long.” He also states, that she is much smaller
than the male, in the proportion nearly of one to
four or five. This appears a novel, and we pre¬
sume to think, a somewhat doubtful assertion. They
are not only, like other genera, greatly attached to
their young, but are likewise remarkable for then-
strong feeling of sociability and attachment to one
another ; and this is carried to such an extent, that
if one female of the herd be wounded, her faith-
ful companions will remain round her till the last
168
THE SPERMACETI WHALE.
moment, or till they are wounded themselves. This
act is called by the whalers “ heaving toand whole
schools have been destroyed by dexterous manage¬
ment, when several ships have been in company.
This attachment is remarkably strong in cubs, and
hence they remain about the ship long after their
parent is destroyed. Captain Colnett remarked, that
if one of a herd be harpooned, more mischief was
done by the loose fish, than by those to which the
boats were fast.
The young males or “ young bulls” generally also
go in schools; but differ remarkably from the fe¬
males in disposition, inasmuch as they make an im¬
mediate and rapid retreat when one of their num¬
ber is struck, and this unfortunate individual is left
to take the best care of himself he can. They are
also very cunning and cautious, keeping at all times a
good look-out against danger. The whaler, accord¬
ingly, must be extremely careful in approaching them,
so as, if possible, not to be seen or heard; for they have
a mode of Communicating with one another through
a whole school in an incredible short space of time.
This remark is true of all Sperm Whales, which thus
become apprized of the approach of danger, though
at the distance of four, five, or even seven miles.
(See p. 57-) Young bulls are consequently much
more troublesome to attack, and more difficult and
dangerous to kill than when full grown. When
three quarters or a half grown, they separate from
each other, and go singly in search of their food.
According to Beale, this species is never or veiy
SOUTH SEA FISHERY.
169
rarely seen in soundings; it inhabits the unfathom¬
able ocean : far away from land, it seeks its prey,
produces its young, and follows all its natural incli¬
nations. At times it may approach the shore,
but only nothin a certain distance, and where the
water is still unfathomable. This account is differ¬
ent from any we have before seen, and we will
therefore supply, along with it, the statement of
another professional gentleman, an eminent natu¬
ralist, who spent many a year in its pursuit, with his
attention peculiarly directed to it. Lesson states
that the individuals of this species are true cosmo¬
polites, and throughout the year may be found in
every quarter of the globe. Yet, according to him,
there are certain and not very long seasons, when
they congregate together in great herds towards the
coasts, in the quiet bays; and a union once formed,
the different pairs immediately separate from the
band, and direct themselves at random throughout
the boundless ocean. He adds, could the times
and places at which these re-unions take place be
ascertained, they would much diminish the labours
of the whaler.
The method of conducting the southern fishery
differs in several particulars from that followed in
the north, and these differences we shall nov r en¬
deavour to point out. Some of the ships are fitted
out solely for fishing the Sperm Whale, whilst
others keep a sharp look-out for the mysticetus
vol. vi. p
SOUTH SEA FISHERY.
170
also; and others, it would appear, in lack of these,
hesitate not to attack almost any kind of whale
that comes -within their reach.
When a whale appears in view, the signal is given,,
and the boats hanging at the ship’s side, and com¬
pletely ready for the attack, are instantly lowered.
These boats are supplied with a mast and sail,
and plenty fresh water, with headsman, steersman,
and rowers; with harpoons, two of which are at¬
tached to the lines, with lances and a buoy to which
a signal is attached, &c. The boats steer so as to
approach the animal from behind, and if there be
more than one in view, each boat fastens to a dis¬
tinct fish, and each crew kill their own. Sometimes
the first stroke of the harpoon is mortal, but gene¬
rally it is otherwise, and the harpooner on the
instant, rapid like lightning, darts his second har¬
poon. On this the animal, irritated by the pain,
plunges into the deep; and this movement, which
the fishers call “ sounding,” requires the greatest
attention lest the line be entangled. When the line
is exhausted, the buoy with its flag is attached to
the extremity, and thrown into the sea. This buoy,
carried along with the animal, is the compass which
guides the boats till they again seize the end of
the line when their victim is enfeebled, and its speed
diminished by the loss of blood. So soon as its
energy is relaxed, the line is carried round the bol¬
lard, and all the resistance is offered that can safely
be employed. When the animal requires again to
come to the surface, the boat pulls upon the line,.
SPERMACETI WHALE
Beale
PLATE 10
SOUTH SEA FISHERY. 171
approaches the fast fish as rapidly as possible, and
renews the contest. On thrusting or darting his
lance, the headsman calls out “ Stern-all,” when the
boat immediately recedes. Upon feeling the lance,
the whale generally plunges, and throws itself in all
directions, lashing the water with its tail, and threat¬
ening destruction with its formidable jaw. The
dying struggles are sometimes tremendous, and the
boats at this time generally keep aloof, as otherwise
they might he dashed to pieces. (See Plate x.)
The larger whales, such as yield eighty or more
barrels of oil, not being nearly so active, are gene¬
rally, by expert whalers, killed easily, and with
less danger than the smaller ones. These enor¬
mous creatures, however, are sometimes known to
turn upon their persecutors with unbounded fury,
destroying every thing that meets them in their
course. Mr. Beale was witness of an occurrence
\
of this sort, off the coast of Japan, in July 1832.
Captain William Swain of the Sarah and Eliza¬
beth of London had, with two other boats, been
engaged in chasing a large whale nearly the whole
of the day. At four p. m. the captain was con¬
siderably a-head of the other boats, and had suc¬
ceeded in harpooning it; and, being a dexterous
whaler, he succeeded in lancing the animal twice
before it recovered from the blow; these wounds
having penetrated the chest, caused the abundant
ejection of blood through the spiracle : it however
suddenly descended to the depth of about forty fa¬
thoms, and as suddenly rose, striking the boat with
DANGERS OP
172
excessive force, which threw it into the air in frag¬
ments, with the men and every thing it contained.
The men, though much bruised, managed to support
themselves with oars, &c. for about three quarters
of an horn-, when they were relieved by the arrival
of another of the boats. All this time the whale con¬
tinued near them, and several sharks, attracted by
the blood. The whale was finally secured.
Numberless stories are told of fighting whales, one
or two of which we shall mention. In the year 1804,
the ship Adonis, being in company with several
others, struck a large whale olf the coast of New
Zealand, which “ stove” and destroyed nine boats
before breakfast, and the chase was consequently
given up. After destroying the boats belonging to
many ships, this whale was at last captured, and
many harpoons of various vessels were found in its
body. This whale was extensively known under
the designation of “ New Zealand Tom,” and many
traditions about it are carefully preserved.
But it is not boats only, for ships even are some¬
times destroyed by these powerful creatures. It is
a well authenticated fact, that the American-ship,
the Essex, was destroyed in the South Pacific
Ocean by an enormous Sperm Whale. When the
greater part of the crew were absent in the boats
killing whales, the few people remaining on board
saw an enormous whale come up close to the ship,
and when very near, it appeared to sink down for
the purpose of avoiding the vessel; and in doing so,
struck its body against some part of the keel, which
SOUTH SEA FISHERY. 173
was broken off by the force of tlie blow and floated
to the surface. The whale was then observed to
rise a short distance from the ship, and to come
with apparently great fury towards it, striking one
of the bows with its head with amazing force, and
so completely staved it in. The ship of course im¬
mediately filled, and fell over on her side; in which
dreadful position the poor fellows in the boats saw
their only home, and many hundred miles distant
from the nearest land! On returning to the wreck,
they found the few who had been left on board,
hastily congregating in the remaining boat, in which
they had scarcely taken refuge when the vessel cap¬
sized. With much difficulty they obtained a scanty
supply of provisions from the wreck, their only sup¬
port for the long and dreary passage before them to
the coast of Peru, whither they endeavoured to
make their way. Three only of the whole crew
survived; the remainder having perished under
unheard of sufferings and privations, over which we
willingly draw a veil. These three were found in
a state of stupefaction, allowing their boat to drift
along where the winds and waves listed. One of
the survivors was the master: by kind and careful
attention they were eventually rescued from the
jaws of death.
The flensing or “ cutting in” process is somewhat
peculiar. On being attached to the side of the ves¬
sel, a frame* work is thrown over the fish, and a strap
of blubber is cut in a spiral direction, which being
raised by certain purchases, turns the fish round as
SOUTH SEA FISHERY.
on an axis till nearly the whole blubber is stript off.
To show how this process is conducted, and as ex¬
hibiting a faithful outline, taken by measurement, of
a young individual of this genus, we refer to the
accompanying cut copied from a sketch of Colnett’s.
The tackles are hooked at d ; a , a, ci, are spiral stripes sue-
cessively removed ; when removed as far as E, the carcase
will no longer “ cant” in the tackles, and it is therefore cut
through at the line E, E, and also at G, G, the tail being of no
value. The compartment A shews the part of the head which
contains the liquid oil. Being suspended by the tackles, the
front part is cut off at b, b, and the oil baled out with
buckets. When the whale is small, the head is divided at
the line c', c', previous to its being hoisted on deck ; the space
between a', a', and c ', c', also contains much oil. B is the
blow-hole ; H, the ear.
The head matter when congealed is put into casks
in its crude state, and refined at the conclusion
of the voyage. The blubber, however, is reduced
into oil immediately in “ try-works/' with which
every ship is provided for the purpose. The cop¬
pers in the try-works are two in number, and are
placed near the fore hatchway; they are surrounded
with a casing of brick-work, which forms a cistern,
the water in which is changed every two hours so as
to defend the deck from injury. The fuel is the
blubber fritters, which produce a fierce fire. A large
SOUTH SEA FISHERY.
175
fish produces about three tons of oil, a small one
from one to two. A hundred whales sometimes go
to form the cargo of a ship, the produce of which, in
boiled sperm oil, may be from one hundred and fifty
to two hundred tons, besides head matter.
The South Sea fishery was not regularly estab¬
lished as a branch of British trade till towards the
close of the last century. The vessels are usually
between three and four hundred tons burden; and
the voyage occupies frequently three and even four
years; but when all kinds of whales are attacked,
it may be stated as lasting from twenty months to
two years. In the course of the voyage they occa¬
sionally put into harbours to refit and refresh the
crew. The officers and crew are stimulated to
exertion by certain shares of the cargo obtained.
The captain receives perhaps a twelfth; the har-
pooner a fortieth, &c. Several years ago, the com¬
plete outfit amounted, besides the vessel, to about
£.4000, and a cargo of the highest value might
yield £.25,000 or £.30,000. The success was
tolerably certain; and the trade has been found
upon the whole lucrative. In 1791, seventy-five
vessels were engaged; but the number has not since
been so great. In 1830, only thirty-one ships were
sent out, of the burden of eleven thousand tons, all
from the port of London, carrying nine hundred and
thirty-seven men. The relative values of the pro¬
ducts of the different fisheries may be seen from the
SOUTH SEA FISHERY - .
176
market quotations of November 1835. Sperm oil,
<£.75 per ton. Greenland, £.40. South Sea oil,
£.42. Pale seal, £ 43. Whalebone from northern
fishery, £.250 per ton. Whalebone from southern
fishery, £.145.
The Americans for a long time have prosecuted
this trade with great vigour, and more success per¬
haps than any other people. They commenced it in
1690, and for about fifty years found an abundant
supply of fish on their own shores; but the whales
having abandoned these resorts, the American navi¬
gators entered with extraordinary ardour into the
fisheries carried on in the northern and southern
oceans. Mr. Burke, in his famous speech on Ame¬
rican affairs in 1774, adverted to this wonderful dis¬
play of daring enterprise as follows:—“ While we
are carrying on the whale fishery under the Arctic
circle, we hear that they have pierced into the op¬
posite region of Polar cold; that they are at the
antipodes, and engaged under the frozen serpent of
the south. Falkland island, which seems too re¬
mote and too romantic an object for the grasp of
national ambition, is but a stage and resting-place
for their victorious industry. Nor is the equatorial
heat more discouraging to them than the accumu¬
lated winter of both poles. We learn, that when
some of them draw the line or strike the harpoon
on the coast 'of Africa, others run the longitude and
pursue their gigantic game along the coast of Brazil.
No sea but what is vexed with their fisheries. No
climate that is not witness of their toil. Neither
SOUTH SEA FISHERY.
177
tlie perseverance of Holland, nor the dexterous and
firm sagacity of English enterprise, ever carried this
most perilous mode of hardy industry to the extent
to which it has been pursued by this recent people ;
a people who are still in the gristle, and not har¬
dened into manhood.”
Within the last few years the colony of New
South Wales has been busily employed in tills
branch of commerce, and with great benefit to those
engaged in it. The colonists axe situated so much
nearer the fishing grounds, that neither the time
nor the expense of outfit can be compared with
that of the ships equipped from Britain. Of sperm
oil there was exported in .1835, two thousand nine
hundred and eighty-nine tons, valued at £.151,738 ;
and of black oil, fourteen hundred and seventy-seven
tons, valued at £.19,357-
We annex, from Mr. Beale’s work, a very con¬
densed enumeration of the various stations in which
this whale has been seen in greatest number :—New
Guinea, New Iceland, New Britain, King’s Mill
Group, Byron’s Island, equinoctial line from longi¬
tude 168° to 175° east; Ellis Group ; off the east
coast of New Holland; off New Zealand and the
Navigators’ Islands, coast of California, Chili, and
Peru; the Gallapagos; the Molluccas; Straits of
Timor; the Mozambique Channel; off Japan and
the China seas ; Loochar Islands, &c. &c.
These localities, it will be observed, are all in the
southern hemisphere ; but it must not thence be
inferred that Sperm Whales are confined to its seas.
VOL. VI. Q,
SOUTH SEA FISHERY.
178
We have seen that at one time they frequented the
shores of North America, and they are also found
in the Northern Pacific. Though not observed in
great troops, yet they are said to he sometimes
taken in Orkney and Shetland (Statistical Account ,
v. 190), and they are occasionally stranded on the
British coasts. Thus Mr. Pennant states that a
large specimen was stranded on the coast of Norfolk,
which is particularly commemorated by Sir Thomas
Brown (Zoology , ii. 500); one came ashore, fifty-
two feet long, in 1689, at Limekilns in the Forth,
and is described by Sibbald; two others, each
measuring fifty-four feet, were in 1769 cast ashore
near the Tillage of Cramond in the same Frith
(Statistical Account , i. 220); and one, sixty-three
feet long, was in 1756 stranded on the west of
Boss -shire : one, fifty-eight feet long, was stranded
on the Yorkshire coast, as noticed by Mr. Anderson
in the Trans. of the Cambridge Phil. Soc. for 1827;
seventeen were cast ashore in the Elbe in 1723,
half of which were males; and thirty-one, in 1784,
were stranded at one time in the Bay of Audieme
in Lower Brittany, nearly all of which were females.
(Fr. Cuviers Hist. p. 268. 271.) It would thus
however appear they are, alive or dead, but rare in
this part of the world.
On its introduction into commerce, spermaceti, to
which, when refined, the French have applied the
name of cetine , was chiefly employed in medicine,
in which its use is still continued. It has also been
freely used in the cosmetic art. Its largest and most
SOUTH SEA FISHERY.
179
valuable application, however, has long been in the
manufacture of candles, in which it maintains a
considerable rivalry with wax, as cheaper and not
less elegant and agreeable.
Ambergris , according to its quantity, is a pecu¬
liarly valuable product of the Sperm Whale ; often,
however, we might say generally, it is not at all
found in them. Sometimes it sells in London not
much under £.1 an ounce, but frequently two or
three voyages are accomplished, and successfully too,
without any ambergis being obtained. It is seldom
or ever found in the young fish ; but only in those
of full size, or rather of great age. It is generally
considered the result of some diseased process in the
intestinal canal, to which the individual has been
subjected. The quantity obtained, therefore, is very
various. The mate of the Ocean reported to Messrs.
Quoy and Gaimard, as an extraordinary occurrence,
that, on one occasion, he extracted fifty pounds from
a single animal. We remember seeing it stated on
good authority, that a single piece of precisely the
same weight was found by some sailors on the coast
of the Bermudas, who, calculating that they had
made their fortune, lost no time in escaping to
England. Still larger masses sometimes, though
rarely, have been found; the largest we have seen
mentioned weighed two hundred pounds. (Fr .
Cuviers Hist. 303.) Ambergris is found in con¬
siderable quantity on the coasts of the Indian Archi¬
pelago. It is highly esteemed by the Malays, as
by most orientalists; some of whom reserve it ex-
180 PRODUCTS OF THE SPERM WHALE.
clusively for the use of the rajahs. The coasts of
Formosa, of the Molluccas, of Brazil, the Antilles,
and Madagascar are also famous for it. It occurs
also, hut in much smaller quantities, in the Baltic
and other European shores. Its use is almost wholly
confined to the perfumer.
Among many of the South Sea islanders a most
extraordinary value is attached to the teeth of this
animal. They offer them as gifts to their idols, or
adorn with them their queens. In their estimation,
they form the ne plus ultra of what is valuable; and
thus they become the most precious subjects of barter,
by which most of the whale captains purchase fresh
provisions for their crews, or w r hat else of value can
he obtained on the islands. It has been mentioned
that the inhabitants of the Marquisas consider a
good one equal to great riches; and the same is the
estimate made by the inhabitants of Fidjis, Ro-
touma, and by many others of this singular and
simple race.
181
THE HETERODONS.
Leaving the large headed whales, we come now to
the second subdivision, which has been proposed by
Blainville, and adopted by Lesson and other systema-
tists. Besides having the head of the ordinary pro¬
portion which, with other characters, distinguishes
it from the first subdivision, it is distinguished from
the third and last chiefly by the teeth. Whilst
this third is almost uniformly supplied with a great
number of teeth in both jaws, amounting sometimes
to hundreds, this second subdivision has generally a
very small number indeed, which are moreover very
heterogeneous, confined sometimes to the one jaw,
and sometimes, in other genera, to the other. Some¬
times, as in the narwhal, they are not within the
mouth at all; and several genera are believed to be
even still more destitute of teeth. From this great
paucity, and also from their variety, Blainville has
denominated this subdivision heterodon (from crsgos
and obits). It will be perceived that the character
is not a very striking, or perhaps even a very natural
and positive one : but, as we presume not to intro¬
duce a new classification ourselves, we take it as we
find it, and follow it as far as it goes, because we
regard it useful. It includes the Narwhal or Sea
Unicom, the Diodons or two-teethed whales, the
Hyperoodon of Cuvier, the Aodon or toothless whale,
and the Ziphius , which includes some of the most
important fossiles which have been discovered.
182
Fourth Genus.— NARWHALUS.
Distinguishing Characters .—This genus has no teeth, properly
so called, but only two tusks, long and pointed, usually
called horns, springing from the intermaxillary hones, and
directed forwards in the axis of the body ; it has no dorsal
fin.
THE NARWHAL, OR SEA UNICORN.
PLATE XI.
N. Microchephalus, Bon. Lacepede , Desm. — Monodon Mono-
ceros, Lin.) Fab.; popularly known as The Sea Unicom.
This long established genus had been very much the
creation of fancy; and as, from the peculiarity of its
singular horn, it excited much interest, so the errors
connected with it have been very widely spread.
Both Lacepede and Desmaret have three species;
the first of which, the large headed, was represented
as a great oval animal sixty feet long, with a mur¬
derous horn of sixteen feet in length, with which, in
troops, it waged deadly warfare with the mightiest
inhabitants of the ocean, and made them an easy
prey. This species, however, is a mere figment,
the product of ignorance and exaggeration. The
third species, Narwkalits Andersonii , does not rest
on any more solid foundation, so that the genus
really comprehends only one species.
THE NARWHAL OR SEA UNICORN
F. Cuvier
PLATE H
■
THE NARWHAL, OR SEA UNICORN. 183
A considerable number of notices have now been
collected of tbis curious animal, from which a toler¬
ably accurate account may be given of its appearance
and habits; one of the most accurate of these, with
an excellent drawing, was published by Dr. Fleming
in 1808, in vol. i. of the Trans, of the Wernerian
Soc. The length of the Narwhal is now usually stated,
in our more popular works, to be about fifteen or
sixteen feet, which is to be understood exclusive of
the tusk; so that with this striking appendage, it
reaches to from twenty to twenty-six feet. The
animal which was stranded at Boston in Lincoln¬
shire, and of which a drawing was sent by Sir
J. Banks to Lacepede, and from which he took the
characters of his Microcephalus, was stated to be
twenty-five feet long. This perfectly agrees with
Mr. Sowerby’s account of the same specimen, which
was published one year after the Count’s. Sir J.
Banks, in a letter to Dr. Fleming, states, that this
animal, when found, had buried the whole of its
body in the mud of which the beach was com¬
posed, and seemed safely and securely waiting the
return of the tide (Brit. Mis. i. 17). Mr. Sowerby
moreover reports, that this individual, which was ex¬
hibited both in London and Cambridge, was wholly
covered with a black and homy substance, like
some kinds of tortoise-shell, composed of laminm
an inch or more in thickness. Tulpius also states
the size of another, supposed to have been caught
near the Island of May, to have been twenty-two
feet. The head comprehends about one-seventh
184 THE NARWHAL, OR SEA UNIOORN.
part of the whole length; and behind it there is a
slight depression, which points out the line of sepa¬
ration between the head and body. The forehead
rises suddenly, almost perpendicular from the mouth,
and then proceeds for a few inches in a horizontal
direction, when it becomes slightly elevated. On
this point the spiracle is situated; it is directly over
the eye, and measures about four inches, by one and
a half. From the neck, the back swells gradually
to a few inches behind the pectoral fins, where it
is thickest. On the upper and lower parts, and on
each side, slight ridges may be seen, which give
to the body, especially towards the tail, somewhat
of a quadrangular form. The pectorals are re¬
markably small for the size of the animal, elliptical
and somewhat curved, with their thickest edge
forwards. The tail is about twenty inches long and
about four feet broad. It has no dorsal fin ; but in
place of it, there is an irregular, sharp, fatty ridge,
two inches in height, extending between two and
three feet along the back, nearly mid-way between
the snout and tail.
The prevailing colour of the Narwhal is blackish-
grey on the back, variegated with numerous darker
spots running into each other, and forming a dusky-
black surface; with paler and more open spots of
grey on a white ground at the sides, which spots dis¬
appear altogether on the belly. In old animals the
ground is wholly white or yellowish-white, with
dark-grey or blackish spots of different degrees of
intensity; on the belly extremely faint and few, and
THE NARWHAL, OR SEA UNICORN. 185
in considerable surfaces, none at all are to be seen.
In sucklings the colour is wholly a bluish-grey or
slate colour. In one which, was stranded in the
Elbe in 1736, Anderson states the skin was white
as snow, and marked with many dark spots to a
considerable depth; the abdomen was every where
white and glistening, and soft to the touch like
velvet.
The Narwhal has no true teeth in either jaw;
but in the upper are found the most distinguishing
characters of the genus, two long straight and
pointed tusks, like spears, spirally twisted, and im¬
planted into the bones of the upper jaw—the inter-
maxillaries; their direction is fonvards, somewhat
downwards, parallel to the palate bones. There is
literally no trace of any other teeth. When very
young, the germ of the teeth can be discovered on
each side of the mesial line, the subsequent elonga¬
tion of which produces the sharp tusk of the adult.
Sometimes both germs are developed, and produce
two horizontal and diverging spears. Among a
considerable number of instances which might be ad¬
duced, we mention only one beautiful exhibition of
this more perfect developement, which is preserved
in the museum of Roeding at Hamburgh. In this
specimen, when they start from the bone, the tusks
are only two inches apart, but they steadily diverge
and their points are thirteen inches asunder. The
left tusk is seven feet five inches, and the light seven
feet long. It much more frequently happens, how¬
ever, that only one of these germs grows; and that
VOL. IV. R
186 THE NARWHAX, OR SEA UNICORN.
the other, somehow strangled, is almost obliterated
and remains shut up in the bone, like an inert
osseous nut. From this appearance, which is by
much most frequently seen, has resulted the many
names which the Narwhal has received, such as
Monodon , Monoceros , and Unicom; although the
early authors, previous to Linnasus, were not igno¬
rant that the rudiments of two existed. It is
curious that the tusk is usually found on the left
side, and we do not know that any sufficient reason
has been assigned for this circumstance. At one
time it was stated that the tusks were peculiar to the
males; this is now however found to be incorrect,
and it seems doubtful whether they are not as
common in the one sex as the other. Fabricius
account is probably the correct one:— 44 Ceterum
tam fceminoe , quam mares , dentatce.” This natu¬
ralist, alike distinguished for his elegance and ac¬
curacy, seems to have anticipated those who would
put in a claim to originality as to the internal
structure of the tooth ; we again quote his words,
14 Radice cavus , quae cavitas , ut medella totum, fere
dentum transit ” It consists of a very fine compact
kind of ivory.
The use of this tusk is somewhat doubtful, and
many purposes sufficiently absurd have been as¬
signed for it. Several hints, however, have been
thrown out by the ingenuity of Mr. Scorseby, which,
upon the whole, we regard as satisfactorily explain¬
ing its use. Thus, in his 44 Arctic Regions,” he
remarks, from the extremity of the tusk being
THE NARWHAL, OR SEA UNICORN. 187
smooth and clean, whilst all the rest is rough and
dirty, and especially from a broken tusk being
found rubbed down and rounded, it is not im¬
probable it may be used in piercing thin ice, for
the convenience of respiiing, preventing the necessity
of retreat into open water.” (491). And again in his
44 Journal of a Voyage,” &c. we find the following
interesting statement:— 44 My father sent me the
contents of the stomach of a Narwhal killed a few
leagues to the westward of us, which were very
extraordinary. They consisted of several half-di¬
gested fishes, with others of which only the bones
remained. These were remains of a cuttle fish,
part of the spine of a flat fish, probably a small
turbot, and a skate almost entire. The last w r as
two feet three inches in length, and one foot eight
inches in breadth. It comprised the bones of the
head, back, and tail, the side fins, and considerable
portions of the muscular substance. It appears re¬
markable that the Narwhal, an animal without
teeth, a small mouth, and with stiff bps, should be
able to catch and swallow so large a fish as a skate,
the breadth of which is nearly three times as great
as the width of its own mouth. As the animal in
which these remains were found had a horn of
seven feet, I apprehend that this instrument had
been employed in the capture of the fishes on which
it had recently fed. It seems probable that the
skates had been pierced with the horn and killed
before they were devoured; otherwise it is difficult
to imagine how the Narwhal could have swallowed
188 THE NARWHAL, OR SEA UNICORN.
them, or how a fish of any activity would have
permitted itself to be taken, and sucked down the
throat of a smooth-mouthed animal, without teeth
to detain and compress it.”
The eyes are small; the orbit is oval, the iris
chestnut colour, the sclerotic white. According to
Scorseby, there are seven cervical, twelve dorsal, and
thirty-five lumber and caudal vertebrae, in all fifty-
four.
The Narwhal is regarded a migrating animal by
the Greenlanders; its favourite resorts seem to be
amongst the ice of the Northern Pole, in the creeks
and bays of Greenland, Davis Straits, and Iceland.
In these localities it is occasionally very abundant,
while, when seen further south, it appears as if it
had gone astray. Solitary and separated from its
kind, it may be found wandering near the shores of
Britain, or of Northern Europe. We believe it is
scarcely ever found in southern latitudes, and its
home seems to be between the 70° and 80° of
north latitude.
A pleasing account is given of this animal in
the following quotation from Mr. Scorseby:—“ A
great many Narwhals were often sporting about us,
sometimes in bands of fifteen or twenty together:
in several of them each animal had a long horn;
they were extremely playful, frequently elevating
their horns, and crossing them with each other as
in fencing. In the sporting of these animals they
frequently emitted a very unusual sound, resembling
the gurgling of water in the throat, which it probably
THE NARWHAL, OR SEA UNICORN. 189
was, as it only occurred when they reared their
horns, with the front part of the head and mouth
out of the water. Several of them followed the
ship, and seemed to be attracted by the principle of
curiosity, at the sight of so unusual a body. The
water being perfectly transparent, they could be
seen descending to the keel, and playing about the
rudder for a considerable time.”
Narwhals are quick, active, inoffensive animals.
They swim with considerable velocity. When re¬
spiring on the surface, after blowing repeatedly
with much force, they frequently lie motionless for
several minutes with their back and heads just
appearing above water. When harpooned, they
dive in the same manner, and with almost the
same velocity as the mysticetus, but not to the
same extent. They generally descend about two
hundred fathoms, then return to the surface, and
are despatched with the lance in a few minutes.
Near the coast, according to Giesecki, they are always
seen in flocks, in the severest winter, amidst the
fissures of the fixed ice, in the bays from 70°
north latitude to the extremest north. The Green¬
landers drive them with their sledges to fissures of
the ice, where the animals generally come up to
take air, and there kill them with their harpoons
and guns.
By the Greenlanders the Unicom is regarded as
the precursor of the mysticetus, and as soon as it is
noticed, they prepare in right earnest for the fishing,
having learned by experience that wherever the
190 THE NARWHAL, OR SEA UNICORN.
Narwhal is, there, or in the immediate neighbour¬
hood, will he found the whale. This probably arises
from their using the same kind of food.
The blubber, encompassing the whole body from
two to four inches in thickness, supplies about half a
ton of oil, which is regarded of very superior quality.
The Greenlanders regard both the oil and the flesh
as very delightful nourishment. At a time when
the origin of the horns of these animals was less
known, and when they were more rare than in the
present day, they were considered as invaluable,
and brought a high price. The physician, and still
more the charlatan, employed them, and superstition
converted them to its own use; for it is stated that
the monks in various convents procured the true
horn of the unicorn, endowed with unheard of
powers, and far and near obtained for them the
credit of curing the most inveterate diseases. The
ivory is esteemed superior to that of the elephant:
in the words of Giesecki, it far surpasses it in all its
qualities ; it possesses extreme density and hardness,
has a dazzling whiteness, which does not pass into
yellow, and easily receives a very high polish. It
is said that the kings of Denmark possess a mag¬
nificent throne made of this precious material,
which is preserved with great care in the Castle of
Rosenberg; and, at the present day, the horns are
highly valued as an article of trade.
191
Fifth Genus. —DIODONS.
The general characters may be stated to be, their having two
teeth only in the lower jaw, none in the upper; forehead
depressed ; lower jaw much larger than upper, and convex.
DIODONS, OR TWO-TEETHED WHALES.
Several species are said to belong to tbis genus;
different, of course, from Hunter’s, subsequently
discussed. The first we mention is, according to
Lesson, tbe
DIODON DESMARESTI.
Delphinus Desmaresti, Risso.
Risso (Hist. Nat. Nice. t. iii. pi. 2. fig. 3.) de¬
scribes this cetaceous animal as having a very thick
body, especially in the middle, diminishing towards
the extremities, and becoming lank in the abdomen.
Forehead not prominent, but depressed, terminating
by a long muzzle; upper jaw short and without
teeth; lower jaw much larger, convex below, and
having near its extremity two large conical teeth,
three inches long and one broad ; the eye small and
oval, with blue iris; spiracle large, semi-lunar;
pectorals short, dorsal nearly over the vent; tail
192 DI0D0NS, OR TWO-TEETHED WHALES.
large and festooned. The upper portion of the
head and body of the colour of polished steel, with
a number of lines and white streaks, occurring
without regularity; belly white; inside of the
mouth bluish-black. Length of the specimen fif¬
teen feet. According to Risso, this species fre¬
quents the depths of the Mediterranean, where it
is rare: he supplies no information regarding its
habits.
We are glad we can present to the reader a
representation of the second species, according to
Lesson. It is the
DIODON SOWERBI.
PLATE XII.
Delphinus Sowerbi.— Desmaret, Blainville.
Our Plate of this beautiful animal was taken
v
from an individual cast ashore near Brodie-XIouse,
Elginshire, and was described by Mr Sowerby in
his British Miscellany. We have not been able to
procure -a sight of Risso’s plate of the preceding
species, but no one can fail to remark a very striking
resemblance between Risso's description and the ani¬
mal now under review; so much so, that notwith¬
standing Lessons authority, we are almost tempted
to think they must be identical. Their habitat can
scarcely have been the same.
THE DIODON OF SOWERBY
PLATE 12.
DIODON OF SOWERBY.
193
By looking at our plate, and perusing the descrip¬
tion of Sowerby, we learn that the body of this
beautiful animal is thick, especially in the middle,
diminishing towards the extremities ; the forehead
is not prominent hut much depressed, and termi¬
nates in a long muzzle. Mr. Sowerby states that
the lower jaw is blunt, longer than the upper, with
two short lateral teeth, constituting the distinguish¬
ing characteristic of the species; the upper jaw,
wholly without teeth, is sharp, let into the lower
one, and has two depressions corresponding to the
teeth; the eye is very small and oval, the spiracle
is stated to be lunated, with its horns pointing
forwards ; the pectorals are small; the dorsal is over
the vent; the tail large and festooned. The colour
is black above and nearly white below, and satiny
all over. Immediately under the cuticle the sides
were observed to be completely covered with white
vermicular streaks in every direction, which at a
little distance appeared like irregular cuts of a small
sharp instrument. The length was sixteen feet,
and the circumference eleven at the broadest part.
The habitat and habits of this species are wholly
unknown. In fact, this is the only specimen which
has hitherto been noticed and described.
VOL. VI.
s
194
d
Sixth Genus— HYPEROODONTES*
Lacepede , Cuvier .
Characters .. —Three enormous maxillary crests rise over the
cranium and are separated by deep furrows ; these occasion
the remarkably rounded and prominent forehead, with the
short and strong beak; palate supplied with small false tu¬
berculous teeth ? The horns of the crescent-shaped spiracle
turned backwards.
HYPEROODON HONFLORIENSIS.
PLATE XIII.
Hyperoodon of Honfleur, Less.. —H. Butskopf, Lacepede.. —Del-
phinus Butskopf, Bon. —D. Hunterii, Desmaret D. Biden-
tatus, Hunter.• —Bottle-head of Dale ? called Bottle-nosed
Whale by Blunter in his Plate xix.
It may be observed tbat we avoid every thing like
critical disquisition concerning classification and
nomenclature, though these are most important as
it regards the progress of the science. We do so
from the conviction that such discussions are un¬
suited for a popular work of this nature. It may,
however, interest our readers, for once, to have a
specimen of the manner in which in these inquiries
error slips in, and confusion results ; and we shall,
therefore, here adduce a few particulars concerning
the important genus under consideration, premising,
* From vviouv and otious, teeth in the palate.
THE HYPE ROOD ON
,\
\
IIYPEROODON OF HONFLEUR. 195
that we select this instance rather because the con¬
fusion is confined within narrow limits, than because
it exhibits an average degree of the entanglement in
which every department of this subject is involved.
This genus was admitted upon the authority of
M. Baussard, an officer of marine, who examined two
individuals, mother and cub, which were stranded
near the small village of Honfleur, and who with
laudable zeal published an account of them in the
Journ. de Physique , 1789. The circumstances on
which the claim of these specimens to be considered
generic rests, are the total want of teeth in either
jaw, and their having the upper jaw and palate fur¬
nished with small unequal and hard points, which
were about half an inch long in the cub, and some¬
what longer in the mother.
j Baussard’s memoir appeared subsequent to Hun¬
ter s description (Phil. Trans. 178?) of his Del-
phinus Bidentatus , which was admitted as distinct
by Bonnaterre, Lacepede, &c. Hunter says nothing
of false teeth in the palate, and mentions that two
strong and robust teeth existed at the extremity of
the lower jaw.
These then were long regarded as two species.
Bonnaterre, in describing the individuals examined
by Baussard, very unaccountably assigned to them
two teeth in the lower jaw, and he thus very natu¬
rally misled Lacepede, Illiger, and, for a time,
Cuvier (Beg. Ani. 1817, i. 281). It was probably
when holding this opinion that Cuvier, on visiting
Mr. Hunters museum in London, and examining
196 HYPEROODON OF HONFLEUR.
the head of his Bidentatus, came to the conclusion
that Baussard’s and Hunter’s specimens were one
and the same species; belonging, however, to a genus
perfectly distinct from all others. He attached the
name Hyperoodon to both, and in this has been
followed by Desmaret, Lesson, and others to the
present time.
But this is not all. Bonnaterre had applied the
specific name ButsJcopf to Baussard’s specimens.
Butskopf by others, again, was considered the same
as Flounder s-head; but this last appellation was
applied by Dale to the animal described by him
under the name of Bottle-head; and Cuvier re¬
marking (Oss. Foss. v. 325) that Dale’s figure and
Baussard’s very much corresponded, conjoined this
Bottle-head to the Hyperoodons; in this following
Hunter, who expressly says (Phil Trans. 1737,
447) that his second Bottle-nosed Whale is the
same as that described by Dale. Once more w T e
have to add, that the Bottle-head of Dale is by
Blainville identified, as we apprehend incorrectly,
with the toothless whale which comes next to be
described, and which is a very different animal.
The Hyperoodon is peculiarly characterized by
these alleged false teeth in the upper jaw; but even
allowing that these are not to be found in any species,
still the name has been affixed to a genus which
without doubt exists, and which is made con¬
spicuous by marked peculiarities. The form of the
head alone distinguishes it from the aodon, the only
one of the Cetacea to which it approaches. More-
HYPEROODON OP HONFLEUR. 1 97
oyer, tine snout is flat, and the horns of its spiracle
look backwards ( Cuv. Oss. Foss. 325) ; while in the
aodon the snout is nearly cylindrical, and the horns
of the blow-hole look forward. (Lesson . 333).
Besides, there are three great occipital and maxil¬
lary crests, which go oyer the head, and are se¬
parated by deep furrows. Cuyier remarks concern¬
ing it, this cranium differs entirely from the form
peculiar to the dolphins, and alone requires that the
animal should be placed in a distinct genus. (Oss.
Foss. y. 226.)
As characters, then, we adduce the peculiar form
of the head and skeleton; the head being higher
than it is broad: the forehead, which is very pro¬
minent, terminates suddenly in a flat beak, which
is oval at its extremity. The pectorals are very
small; and the dorsal, but little developed, is within
a fifth of the whole length, from the tail. The
colour is a brownish black, verging towards white
beneath. Its usual dimensions are upwards of
twenty feet. It appears to be a rare variety, and
not to live in herds. It has very seldom been met
with. Its habits are very little known. Hunter’s
specimen was caught in the Thames above London
Bridge. Besides the skeleton of this one in his
museum, Cuvier states there was also the cranium
of another of the same species, which must have
belonged to an individual nearly forty feet in length.
198
Seventh Genus.—AODONS.
Characters .—Body fusiform ; distinct appearance of neck ;
forehead prominent; blow-liole with horns projecting for¬
wards , jaw prolonged in form of a subcylindrical beak, in
same continuous line with the head ; no baleen ; no teeth ;
no rugosities on the palate.
A. DALEI, Less*.
PLATE XIV.
THE TOOTHLESS WHALE OF HAVRE.
Delphinus Dalei, Blainville ; Fr. Cuv. Mam.—Delphinus Eden-
tulus, Schreb. Desmaret. —D. Micropterus, Cuv. R. A. 1829 ;
Fr. Cuvier , Hist, des Cet.
Tnis elegant whale belongs to the genus Aodon ,
which is characterized by having no baleen and no
teeth. It is the only known species of the genus,
and is with much hesitation, and we think errone¬
ously, by Fred. Cuvier and Blainville, made to
correspond with the dolphin of Dale, which appears
to be identical with the genus last discussed.
The specimen of the animal now before us was
stranded in 1825, near Havre; was examined by
* Though we believe this to be a complete misnomer, yet
we retain it, because under this name the species has been
satisfactorily described by Blainville and Lesson.
j£>L.\tr) 'j
M UAVH JO Ml VIIM SSimiXCOX 3HX
THE TOOTHLESS WHALE OF HAVRE. 199
Blainville, Dr. Suriray, and the son of M. F. Cuvier;
was delineated by Fred. Cuvier, and its skeleton
deposited in the Paris Museum; so that few of the
Cetacea are more accurately known. The English
name we have applied from the locality in which it
was found.
It has been remarked that the Aodon and neigh¬
bouring genera form the links of the chain between
the larger whales and the dolphins, and we shall
perceive presently that there is some ground for this
opinion. The length of the specimen now under con¬
sideration, which was of a young one, was fifteen feet,
and seven feet and a half in circumference. The
head, which was distinguishable from the body by a
marked neck, was two feet and a half long from the
extremity of the beak to the occiput; the body,
largest in the middle, became smaller at both ex¬
tremities. Seen in profile, the dorsal line was
curved over the head and over the middle of the
body, whilst the under line presented nearly a regu¬
lar curve. The muzzle was round, long, strait, and
perfectly resembled a bird’s beak. No teeth were
discovered in either jaw in the recent state; but after
the gums were removed, a few, in a rudimentary
state, as happens in the upper jaw of the cachalots,
&c., were found in the lower jaw. The spiracle
was two feet three inches from the extremity of the
beak; and its horns were directed forwards. The
eye was large, its longitudinal diameter measuring
two inches; it had an upper eyelid, but no trace
could be discovered of a conduit to the ear, either
200 THE TOOTHLESS WHALE OF HAVRE.
during life or after death. The pectorals were very
small in proportion to the size of the animal, being
only eighteen inches long and, six wide, situated
three feet four inches from the front; the dorsal
also was very small, a foot high, twelve feet from
the anterior extremity. The general colour was
grey; dark above, and gradually becoming whitish
beneath. It possessed all the brilliancy of tint and
softness which characterizes the Cetacea.
These are the characters, drawn by Blainville, of
this beautiful and delicate looking animal, of which
we know of but one individual, as of one species.
They appear quite sufficient to distinguish it from
all the other genera. It would appear to be very
rare; and of its habitat, disposition, and habits we
know nothing.
201
Eighth Genus.— ZIPHIUS.
Of tlie next genus, Zipliius, introduced by Cuvier,
we shall, in this place, allude but to one of the
three species he has established, and this for the
purpose of satisfying the reader of the accuracy
of those general statements we have formerly made
concerning this most important, but somewhat dry
portion of the order. The genus is fossile. The
specimens, or rather fragments, which Cuvier pos¬
sessed, were found in various parts of Europe. He
states that their craniums ally them to the Cachalots,
and still more to the Hyperoodons, many of the dis¬
tinguishing characters of which they possess. They
all appear to have been quite destitute of teeth.
ZIPHIUS PLANIROSTRIS (Cuv. Oss. Foss. v. 352).
This species was formed on the examination of
many heads which were discovered in 1809, com¬
pletely petrified, in excavating the docks at Ant¬
werp, where they occupied the deepest parts. They
were lying half a mile from the banks of the Escant,
thirteen feet above the lowest run of the water, and
thirty feet under the mean level of the town, below
several strata of sand and clay, of various thickness,
which contained a great number of shells and teeth
of sharks, &c. It would appear clear that this species
never could have had any teeth, and to use Cuvier’s
■words, it is certain that there are none of the Cetae
whose osteology is known, which exhibits a struc¬
ture similar to that which belongs to this tribe.
VOL. VI.
T
202
THIRD SUBDIVISION.
Previous to the present century, the whole of the
remaining ordinary Cetacea, which go to form the
third subdivision, were, with those of the subdivision
we have just left, classed by naturalists under the
general term Delphinus , or Dolphins. Whenever,
in fact, one of the Cetacea was discovered whose
head bore the usual proportion to the body, and
whose jaws were supplied with teeth, it was ranked
as a dolphin. When the number of known species
was hut small, and the characters but ill defined,
this arrangement was perhaps sufficient; hut now¬
adays, when their number is greatly increased,
and when those who know the subject best declare
that a small proportion only of those which really
exist have hitherto been described, it becomes
necessary to multiply generic divisions ; and the
term dolphin must be restricted to an individual,
though very numerous genus. Lacepede led the
w r ay in this division, by the introduction of his Del-
phinaptera , which was immediately adopted by
Cuvier, Scorseby, &c. Cuvier, again, separated the
Porpoises from the dolphins; and Blainville in¬
creased the number of genera by adopting the Oxyp -
ter a (Cetm with tw T o dorsal fins) of Rafinesque, and
introducing the Delphinorhyncus. Lesson has still
further added to this list. To us it appears that the
present state of the science requires no fewer than
the following divisions, which in this place we shall
do no more than enumerate. The first section
THIRD SUBDIVISION.
203
A. Includes those which have no dorsal fin.
Genus a. Having the head globe-shaped. Beluga.
- b. Having a slender beak. Delpldnapterus.
B. Includes those which have a dorsal fin.
Genus c. Having the head globe-shaped. Globiceps.
- d. With a short snout, uniformly rounded. Pho-
caena.
- e. With a snout and a distinct beak. Delphinus.
-- f. With a much longer snout and beak, and having
no furrow between them. Delphinorhyncus.
- g. Without a snout and with a long beak. Soosoo.
—■—- h. Having a long beak bristled with hair, and both
incisor and molar teeth. The Irda.
- i. Having two dorsal fins. Occypterus.
On this classification we would simply remark,
that we have not at all innovated, hut only followed
what has already been introduced by able and cele¬
brated naturalists. It would be an easy matter to
state objections to this arrangement, more particu¬
larly perhaps to its nomenclature, and to demonstrate
that it is susceptible of improvement. We feel,
however, that we are not the parties to attempt this
improvement, which moreover should not too hastily
be effected. We consider the above a great stretch
and improvement upon any that has yet been offered
to the British public. The characters, taken from
the fascial line, are conspicuous on the slightest
inspection, and we believe they are for the most
part fixed and certain. The majority of them are
exhibited on Plate i. s , the Globiceps; t , the Por¬
poise ; u , the Dolphin ; the Delphinorhyncus ;
w, the Soosoo.
We now proceed to the genus Beluga.
204
Ninth Genus.—BELUGA.
The osteology of the cranium, described by Baron Cuvier,
supplies generic characters which distinguish this from the
neighbouring genera. It is these peculiarities which give
the shape to the head ; obtuse, conical, and rounded. It is
distinguished from the Globiceps by not having a dorsal
fin ; and from the Delphinapterus, by not having, as it has,
a prolonged snout, like a flattened beak.
THE BELUGA, OR WHITE WHALE.
PLATE XV.
Beluga, Bon .—Beluga Borealis, Less _Delphinapterus Beluga,
Lacep. —Balsena Albicans, Lin _Delphinus Albicans, Fab.
—White Fish, of Whalers.
The general appearance of this very beautiful ani¬
mal will be more readily perceived by an exami¬
nation of the accompanying highly finished and
accurate Plate, than by any words which we can
use. The original, by Mr. Syme, w r as taken from
an individual which for nearly three months during
the summer of 1815 was observed to inhabit the
Frith of Forth, passing upwards almost every day
with the tide, and returning with the ebbing of the
waters. During this time it was generally known
under the name of the White Whale, and was sup¬
posed frequently to be in pursuit of salmon. Many
fruitless attempts were made to secure it; but at
length it was killed by the salmon-fishers, by means
of spears and fire-arms. It was purchased by Mr.
Bald of Alloa, and transmitted by him to Professor
THE BELUGA, OR WHITE WHALE.
PLATE 15.
THE BELUGA, OR WHITE WHALE. 205
Jameson, and is now in the Royal Museum at
Edinburgh. It was examined by Drs. Barclay and
Neil, whose observations are published in Trans.
Wernerian Soc. vol. iii.
Dr. Neil well observes that the shape of this
animal is highly symmetrical, and at once suggests
the idea of perfect adaptation to rapid progressive
motion in water. It resembles generally a double
cone, one end of which is considerably shorter than
the other. Its head is small and lengthened, and
over the forehead there is a thick round cushion of
flesh and fat: the body continues to swell as far as
the pectoral fins, and from this point gradually
diminishes to the setting on of the tail. Its length
varies from twelve to twenty feet. Its pectorals are
large, thick, and oval. The tail is also powerful ; is
bent under the body in swimming, and worked with
such force, that it impels the Beluga forward, says
Giesecki, with the velocity of an arrow. The colour
is usually a uniform and beautiful cream colour,
whilst the younger ones are marked with brownish
spots, and occasionally are somewhat of a blue or slaty-
colour. Scorseby remarks that he has seen some of
a yellowish colour, approaching to orange; and this
agrees with the statement of Fabricius, who says they
are white, sometimes tinged with red. Many contra¬
dictory accounts are given of the number of teeth, un¬
questionably arising from the fact that in this whale,
as in most of the genera, the teeth have the greatest
tendency to drop out as the animal becomes aged;
thus clearly shoving how objectionable and difficult
206
THE BELUGA, OR WHITE WHALE.
. ►
it is to make these parts the ground-work of classifi¬
cation. Anderson states that the Beluga has no
teeth in the upper jaw, and that this is the univer¬
sal opinion of the Greenland fishers (ii. 150), whilst
there are eight on each side in the lower
Dr. Neil gives the teeth i. e. nine on each side
o 6 6’
in upper, and six on each side in lower; and Crantz
8 9. 9 9 .
jr-j. Cuvier, however, states them —■; in all fifty-
four ; and this is probably another proof of his great
accuracy. In the above enumeration, there is the
authority of Neil, and we may add, of Crantz, for
nine, nine, in the upper ; and Fabricius expressly
states that he had counted nine, nine, in the lower;
which, he adds, were like the single molores of
quadrupeds. If, however, we are so slow in arriving
at certainty in the dental apparatus of the Beluga,
when are we, by this means, to determine species
in many of the other Cetacea ?
The spiracle is situated in the vertex, and has its
horns turned backwards; the eye is scarcely larger
than in man, the iris is blue; Dr. Barclay con¬
firms the statement of Cuvier, that in this and the
neighbouring species there is nothing like a true
olfactory nerve; there is no external ear, and no
appearance even of a meatus auditorius; the mouth
is small in proportion to the size of the animal. As
the apparatus of the windpipe is different in dif¬
ferent genera, we shall here refer the reader to
Pallas’ interesting description of the valve of the
THE BELUGA, OR WHITE WHALE. 207
blowing canal, which was introduced in our sketch
of the Comparative Anatomy of the Order, and
which will be found on p. 62. To this we now
add the account given by the late Dr. Barclay of
the windpipe itself. “ The arytenoid cartilages, as
in man, appeared at first view to rest on the margin
of the cricoid ; but on opening the larynx they were
observed to enter more than an inch within the
cricoid, and to form the fissure which corresponds
with our rima glottidis. From the atlantal margin
of the cricoid, they gradually converged till they
come into contact, and inclined dorsad; their length
was seven inches. The epiglottis was six inches in
length, inclining dorsad. These meeting with a
membrane interposed, formed a tube, which crossed
the pharynx, and was directed to the lower orifice
of the breathing tube.” We shall subjoin one other
observation of this distinguished individual, as it
regards an extraordinary structure elsewhere alluded
to in these pages. (See page 50.) After observing
that in this animal, as in many fishes, the spinal
cord may be examined through certain apertures
without disturbing the bones, he remarks, that a
portion of the cord was found to be covered with a
semi-cylindrical mass on each side, formed of a tough
spongy elastic substance, with large vessels running
through it, and freely anatomizing. These two
cylinders occupied by far the greatest part of the
spinal canal; the medullary cord, where examined,
not being larger than that of man at the middle of
the neck. (Loc. Cit, p. 393.)
208 THE BELUGA, OR WHITE WHALE.
The food of the Beluga is said to he cod, had¬
docks, flounders, and smaller fish of this description.
It seeks them with perseverance, pursues them with
ardour, and devours them with avidity.
Its favourite haunts are evidently the higher
latitudes of the Arctic Regions. They are plenti¬
ful in Hudsons Bay, Davis Straits, and on some
parts of the northern coasts of Asia and America,
where they frequent the large rivers. Steller men¬
tions them as being found at Kamschatka; and
according to Charleroix, they are numerous in the
Gulf of St. Lawrence, and go with the tide as high
as Quebec. There are fisheries both for them and
the porpoise in that river. A considerable quantity
of oil is obtained, and of their skins is made a
sort of Morocco leather, thin, yet strong enough
to resist a musket-ball (Pen. Art. Zool. i. 183).
They also abound near Disco Island in Greenland,
and are not uncommon in Spitzbergen. Mr. Scorseby
never observed them lower than Jan Mayen’s Land.
This navigator also remarks, that he has seldom seen
them among the ice, hut in those places where the
water is clearest and smoothest. They are not at
all shy, but often follow the ships, and tumble about
the boats in herds of thirty or forty ; bespangling
the surface with their splendid whiteness. They
are seldom pursued by the whale fishers, not only
because it is difficult to strike them, on account of
their great activity; but because the harpoon often
gives way; and they are, moreover, of comparatively
little value when killed. It is only a few stragglers
THE BELUGA, OR WHITE WHALE. 209
that are seen in the southern latitudes, or even on the
European shores. Besides the one mentioned above.
Colonel Imrie, in 1793, saw two young ones which
had been cast upon the beach in the Pentland Frith,
some miles to the east of Thurso. They were both
males, between seven and eight feet long; they were
white, mottled with brownish-grey.
Sir Charles Giesecki describes the White Whale
as a migrating animal, which visits the west coast
of Greenland regularly every year about the end of
November. He remarks that, next to the seal, it
is the most useful animal captured by the natives,
and it comes at a season when their provisions fall
very short. It arrives in herds, in stormy weather,
with the wand from the south-west. It is captured
by the natives with harpoons and strong nets; in the
latter case, the nets are extended across the narrow
sounds between the islands, and when a shoal is
thus interrupted in its course seaward, the individuals
are attacked with lances, and great numbers are
frequently killed. The flesh is somewhat similar to
that of beef, of a bright red colour, though somewhat
oily. According to Hans Egede, “ His flesh as well
as the fat, has no bad taste, and when it is marinated
with vinegar and salt, it is as well tasted as any
pork whatever ; the fins also, and the tail, pickled
or sauced, are very good eating; so that he is very
good cheer.” Its oil is of the best, whitest, and finest
quality. Some of the internal membranes are used
for windows, and some as bed-curtains; the sinews
furnish the best sort of strong thread.
u
VOL, VI.
210
Tenth Genus.— DELPHINAPTERUS.
The Delpliinapterus is distinguished from the Dolphin by
having no dorsal fin; and from the Beluga, by having in
front of the head a slender beak, flattened transversally,
and separated from the head by a deep furrow. The
Beluga, moreover, belongs to the northern hemisphere, the
Delpliinapterus to the southern.
DELPHINAPTERUS PERONII.
PLATE XVI.
Delpliinapterus Peronii, Cuvier , Lesson. —Delpliinus Leuco-
gramphus, Peron _D. Peronii, Lacepede.
Cuvier had recognized this whale, first described
by Peron, as belonging to this genus ; but we are
especially indebted to the able author of Zoologie
de la Loquille for an accurate account of it. We ex¬
tract our description from this interesting writer.
High southern latitudes are the resort of the
Delphinapterus of Peron. The historian of the
voyage of Baudin met with them to the south of
Van Diemen’s Land, Dr. Quoy saw them near New'
Guinea, and v T e have seen them off Magellan’s
Straits, and among the Falkland Islands. Many
hundreds of them surrounded the corvette, in Ja¬
nuary 1823, on our entering the Southern Ocean,
THE DELPHINAPTKHT7S OF PERON
Yoy. de la Coguille
DELPHINAPTERUS OF PERON. 211
and one of them was harpooned by the sailors,
which enables me to give a more accurate account
than any previously supplied. It is alluded to in
Kotzebue’s Voyage, under the name of Dolphin of
Chili , and by Lacepede and Desmaret (771) as the
Dolphin of Peron.
The individual taken was six feet long. It is
elegant in its form, regular in its proportions, sleek,
and especially remarkable, in that it appears to he
covered with a black cloak. Its snout as far as the
eye is of a silky and silvery whiteness, so are the
sides, the pectoral fins, the abdomen, and a part of
the tail. A large scapulary of a deep hluisli-black
colour, rising at the eyes where the white appears
like a cross, is painted and bent on the flanks, so as
to cover the upper part of the hack only. The
anterior edge of the pectoral fins and tail is brown,
the muzzle is prolonged, and separated from the
cranium by a deep furrow. The iris is of an eme-
raid-green colour. Teeth in all 156 : they
Ot7 Oo
are slender, pointed, and somewhat curved at the
summit.
Our space will not permit us to introduce the
D. of Commerson , or any other species belonging to
this genus.
212
Eleventh Genus. —GLOBICEPHALU S.
This genus is characterized by having no visible snout; the
head is entirely globular, and the mouth is not so much at
its anterior extremity as at its under part. In this it re¬
sembles the Beluga, but differs from it in having a dorsal
tin, as well as by many other marked distinctions.
THE DEDUCTOR, OR CATNG WHALE.
PLATE XVII.
Globicephalus Deductor, Lesson .—"Delphinus Globiceps, Cu¬
vier, Desm _D. Deductor, Scorseby _D. Melas, Dr. Trail.
Egede is perhaps the first author who makes
mention of the Deductor, under the name of Buts-
head (Descrip, of Greenland, 75) ; and he was soon
followed by Duhamel, who gave a figure of one
taken at Havre, under the name of “ the porpoise
with the round snout.” In 1806, Dr. Neil, in an
appendix to his “ Tour through some of the Islands
of Orkney and Shetland,” gives a more extended
and interesting account of them, under the name of
Uyea-Sound or Ca’ing Whales, than any which had
previously appeared; and three years after, Dr. Trail
published in Nicolson’s Journal (1809) the first
accurate description of this species, giving it the
appellation of Delphinus Melas , with a drawing
from liis friend Janies Watson, Esq., which was
THE DEDUCTOR ORCA’iN'G WHALE
Score.sly
(
PLATE 17
213
THE DEDUCTOR, OR CA’iNG WHALE.
republished, with additional details, by Scorseby in
bis “ Arctic Regions, 1830.” In 1812, an interest¬
ing memoir concerning this variety, named by him
Globiceps, appeared from the pen of Cuvier, in
vol. xix. Ann. du Museum. From these sources,
some interesting circumstances may be detailed of
this species.
The Globicephalus, as its name implies, has a
head very prominent, short and round, with some¬
thing like a pad over its mouth, which gives it a
very peculiar appearance. Its length is from sixteen
to twenty-four feet; its circumference about ten or
eleven. Almost the whole body is black, smooth
and shining like oiled-silk; the back and sides are
jetty-black; the breast and belly of a somewhat
lighter colour. The dorsal fin, which is nearly in
the centre of the body, is about two feet long at the
base, takes a curve backward, and is crescent-shaped
at its extremity; it is cartilaginous and immovable;
the pectorals arise almost from the side of the
neck, are from six to eight feet long, narrow and
tapering at their extremity; the tail is large, ex¬
tending to about five feet. The spiracle is single, and
placed in a small hollow towards the back of the
head. The upper jaw projects somewhat over the
lower; the teeth are not apparent in the young,
and begin to fall out before they attain any great
age. The normal number is not ascertained, but
appears to be from twenty to twenty-eight in each
jaw; they are conical, sharp, and somewhat curved
at their summit. When the mouth is shut, the
214 THE DEDUCTOR, OR CA’iNG WHALE.
teeth lock into each other, like those of a rat-trap.
In the females giving suck, the teats have been
observed to be somewhat larger than those of a cow,
and when pressed, milk very readily issues from
them. Their food is sand-lances and other smaller
fish. They are generally very fat, their blubber
being about three inches thick, and affording a large
quantity of excellent and pale oil.
It would appear that the Northern Ocean, from
the 56° to the 6(5°, is the favourite resort of the
Deductor. Sometimes it has been witnessed in
lower latitudes; but not frequently, nor in large
numbers: it would also seem to have been seen in
the Mediterranean, but whether as a mere straggler
or a permanent residenter, we cannot decidedly
affirm.
Of all the Cetacea, this would appear to be the
most sociable, often herding together in innumerable
flocks. We shall here supply a few facts which
establish this point. From an old history of the
Feroe Islands, quoted by Scorseby, it would appear
that the inhabitants are in the habit of hunting
these animals, which they designate Grind Whales ,
and oapture them in great numbers. In the year
1664, on two excursions only, they killed about
one thousand. In the year 1748, forty individuals
of this species were seen in Tor Bay, and one seven¬
teen feet long was captured; in 1799, about two
hundred ran ashore in Fetlar, one of the Shetland
Isles; and in 1805, as mentioned by Dr. Neil, in
Februaty, one hundred and ninety, and in March,
THE DEDUCTOR, OR CASING WHALE. 215
one hundred and twenty more, out of a herd of
about five hundred, were forced ashore on the same
spot in Uyea-Sound in Unst. In 1806, ninety-two
were stranded in Scalpa Bay, Orkney : in the winter
of 1809 and 1810, eleven hundred and ten of these
whales approached the shore of Hvalfiord, Iceland,
and were captured: in 1812, seventy were chased
ashore near the village of Bloubalzbance, on the
coast of Bretagne; and in 1814, one hundred and
fifty were driven into Balta Sound, Shetland, and
were there despatched. These are only a few of the
instances, in which, in modem times, an extensive
slaughter of the Deductor has taken place.
As exhibiting the nature of these occurrences, we
subjoin an account of the capture of ninety-eight,
which was effected in 1832 in the island of Lewis.
u The little town of Stornaway was lately enlivened
by a scene of the most animating and striking de¬
scription. An immense shoal of whales was, early
in the morning, chased to the mouth of the harbour
by two fishing boats, which had met them in the
offing. This circumstance was immediately descried
from the shore, and a host of boats, about thirty or
forty in number, armed with every species of
weapon, set off to join the others in pursuit, and
engage in the combat with these giants of the deep.
The chase soon became one of bustle and anxiety
on the part both of man and whale. The boats
were arranged by their crews in the form of a
crescent, in the fold of which the whales were col¬
lected, and where they had to encounter tremendous
216 THE DEDUCTOR, OR CA’iNG WHALE.
showers of stones, splashings of oars, frequent gashes
with harpoon and spears, whilst the din created by
the shouts of the boats’-crews, and the multitude on
shore, was in itself sufficient to stupify and stun the
bottle-nosed foe to a surrender. On more than one
occasion, however, the floating phalanx was broken,
and it required the greatest activity and tact ere the
breach could be repaired and the fugitives regained.
The shore was neared by degrees, the boats ad¬
vancing and retreating by turns, till at length they
succeeded in driving the captive monsters on the
beach opposite the town, and within a few yards of
it. The movements of the whales were now violent,
but except when one became unmanageable and
enraged when harpooned, or his tail fixed in a
noose, they were not dangerous to approach. One
young sailor, however, received a stroke from the
tail of one of the largest of them, which promised to
be fatal. In a few hours the whales were captured :
the shore was strewed with the dead carcases, whilst
the sea presented a bloody and troubled aspect,
giving evident proofs that it was with no small effort
that they were subdued, and made the property of
man. On the present occasion, the whole inhabi¬
tants of the place, male and female, were interested
spectators of the scene.” (Caledonian Mercury.)
One might almost fancy that old Waller, two hundred
years ago, was one of the witnesses of this identical
scene.
They man the boats, and all the young men arm
With whatsoever may the monsters harm ;
THE DEDUCTOR, OR CA’lNG WHALE. 217
Spikes, halberts, spits, and darts that wound so far ;
The tools of peace, the implements of war.
Now was the time for vigorous lads to show
What love or honour could invite them to :
A goodly theatre ! where rocks are round
With rever’nd age, and lovely lasses, crowned.
Battle of the Summer Isles.
It would be interesting to ascertain from what
mental peculiarity it springs that this animal is so
frequently stranded, so easily hunted, and so readily
made a prey to the convenience or cupidity of man.
It can scarcely, as has been alleged, be the result of
their stupidity, by which they lose their way, and
do not know the difference between land and water.
We have seen enough to demonstrate that they are
most sociable in their habits; and we may now re -
mark, that they seem moreover to be endowed with
an interesting instinct, very useful, doubtless, on
the whole, whereby they are strongly induced to
follow the guidance of the oldest and most expe¬
rienced of their number. In the words of Dr. Trail,
they seem generally to follow one as a leader with
blind confidence; and Dr. Neil remarks, the main
body of the drove follows the leading whales, as a
flock of sheep follows the wedders. Hence the
natives of Shetland well know, that if they are able
to guide the leaders, they are sure of likewise en¬
tangling multitudes of their followers. This trait
is strikingly illustrated by a circumstance of which
Dr. Trail was a witness. “ I once,” says he, “ was
in a boat when an attempt was made to drive a shoal
of them ashore; but when they had approached
VOL. IV. x
218 THE DEDTJCTOR, OR Ca’iNG WHALE.
very near the land, the foremost turned round with
a sudden leap, and the whole rushed past the boat.”
It is from this peculiarity of their mental constitu¬
tion, that Mr. Scorseby, it would appear, applied to
them the appellation Deductor.
They appear wholly inoffensive and very timid
animals. Thus, in all the instances on record of
their being discovered at sea, and hunted to land,
the chase has been free from danger, and a few frail
boats and most ineffective weapons, with shouts and
noise in the water, were sufficient to drive them
from their native element to their destruction.
They likewise manifest in a very striking manner
that trait for which all the Cetacea seem remarkable;
we mean maternal, and, in this case, we must add
mutual affection. This is not only inferred from
their associating in troops, but especially from their
manifestation of a disposition, as we have seen in
some of the Sperm Whales, to help and assist one
another in their difficulties. Thus, in the case of
the stranding of a shoal at Bloubalzbance, there
were only twelve men, in half a dozen of frail boats,
engaged in the pursuit. At first they succeeded in
stranding only one of the young cubs; it immediately
set up loud cries, which were heard by the rest,
and an old one, which was considered its mother,
speedily came to its relief; but she came not alone,
the whole flock followed, and w r ere thus made an
easy prey. Upon this point we find it stated in
Dr. Neil’s account, that when any one strikes the
ground it sets up a howling cry, and immediately
GLOBICEPHALUS OK RISSO
_ Jf. Cuvipr
PLATE 18
> .
.
• .
.
• .. »
• ■
-- •• V-
•.
,
*■ . >■>
*
. .
•: ' v.
.
■
.
\
#
'
-
THE DEDUCTOR, OR CA’iNG WHALE. 219
others crowd to the spot as if for its relief. We
believe it is this circumstance which has procured
for it the name of Ca’ing, that is, Calling Whale.
Cuvier mentions, respecting those captured in
Bretagne in 1812, that the flesh was soft, but that
it was used as food by the poor in the neighbour¬
hood, for about a fortnight, and was used without
any inconvenience.
Risso states that individuals of this species an¬
nually visit the neighbourhood of Nice in the months
of May and June. Upon the whole they rarely
approach the shore, and after a short time they ap¬
pear to migrate. His description, though generally
agreeing, does not perfectly correspond with that
which we have given above. (Hist. Nat. &c. t. iii.
p. 33.)
THE GLOBICEPHALUS RISSIJ.
PLATE XVIJI.
Globiceplialus of Risso, Lesson .—Delphinus Rissii, Cuv.
The accompanying plate exhibits a specimen of the
only other ascertained species belonging to this ge¬
nus. M. Risso sent an account of it from Nice,
with a drawing, in 1811, to Paris; when Cuvier,
satisfied it was distinct, affixed to it the name of this
modest and devoted naturalist. In addition to the
generic characters, which we need not repeat, we
remark that the shape, the colour, the appearance of
the head and snout, and fins, may be perceived by
220
THE GLOBICEPS OF RISSO.
examining the plate, first published by Fr. Cuvier.
The spiracle is situated far hack in the head; the
mouth is large ; in this individual the upper jaw alone
had teeth, five on each side, which were large, conical,
and somewhat curved, distant from each other, and
strongly fixed in the jaw ; the inteiior of the mouth
was covered with soft tubercles; the eye was oval
and very small; the iris golden-coloured.
Besides these two species here delineated and de¬
scribed, two other living ones have been named,
though their existence is not quite established, the
G. Leueocephalus and G. Fmcus. We must now,
however, pass on to the
FOSSILE GLOBICEPS.
Globiceplialus Cortesi, Cuvier —Delpliinus Cortesi, Fossile.
We shall here shortly allude to a fossile species
which was discovered by Cortesi, and arranged in
this genus by Cuvier. This was the first of the
magnificent discoveries made by M. Cortesi of
Plaisance, on the Appennine hills to the south of
Fiorenzuola. In 1800, this enthusiastic naturalist
procured the fossile bones of an elephant and rhino¬
ceros on the top of Mount Pulgnasco, one of the
hills which descends from the Appennines to the Po;
they were almost on the surface. Parallel to Mount
Pulgnasco on the east, and separated by the streamlet
FOSSILE GLOBICEPS.
221
called Stramonte, there descends another hill, called
Torazza, which is lower, and, like the base of Pulg-
nasco, is composed of blue clay filled with marine
shells. It was in this hill, at about one hundred and
twenty feet above the Stramonte, that M. Cortesi,
attracted by one of the vertebra which had been
brought him, made search, and discovered the almost
entire skeleton of this globiceps, a circumstance
which prompted him to all his subsequent re -
searches, of which we have seen so many happy
results.
We must not enter into many details, but may state
that the head was almost entire, as also the lower
jaw ; even the bones of the ear were in situ. Each
jaw had twenty-eight teeth; but supposing that it
was ascertained, that some of the living species
had this precise number, yet this specimen would
still differ in certain essential and. specific characters.
It had thirteen dorsal vertebra. After considering
all the data, M. Cortesi inferred, with much ap¬
pearance of truth, that this animal must have been
about thirteen feet long. We conclude the notice
of this wonderful animal of stone in the words of
Cuvier,—“ From all these considerations I cannot
but conclude, that this fossile Cetacea is of a species
different from all those of this genus, which, up to
the present time, are distinctly known.”
We now proceed to the fourth genus into which
we divided these lesser Ceta?, viz. the Phooama or
Porpoise Genus.
222
Twelfth Genus. —PHOCiENA.
Distinguishing Characters .—The Porpoises have a short snout,
uniformly rounded to the extremity.
We shall introduce first,
THE COMMON PORPOISE.
PLATE XIX. Fig. 1.
\
Phocsena Communis..—Delphinus Phoerrna, Lin. Bonn., fyc.
Popular names, Maris Sus.—Marsouin.—Sea Pork.—-Spring-
whal.—Tmnbler_Porpess.
The Common Porpoise is, of all the Cetacea, that
which is best known in this part of the world. It
lives on our coasts, frequents our estuaries, ascends
our fresh-water rivers, frequently exhibiting itself in
numerous groups.
Like the proper dolphin, it is amongst the smallest
of the order; and between these two there is much
general resemblance in colour, shape, and disposi¬
tions,—so far as these dispositions are known. The
shape of the head constitutes a distinction. The
porpoise has no beak, the muzzle is gently curved
at its termination, and possesses in breadth what
it wants in length.
THE COMMON PORPOISE.
223
The Porpoise is usually four or five feet long,
though sometimes as much as six or eight. We
shall give the general descriptions in the words of
Cuvier. It has absolutely no hair, not even eye¬
lashes. Its skin is perfectly smooth, and its scarf-
skin is very soft to the touch and easily detached.
It has no lips properly so called; hut the skin,
always sleek and black, is somewhat strengthened
at its union with the gums. The eye is small, and
situated nearly in the line of the opening of the
mouth; the eyelids are soft, and have very little
play; their internal surface is moistened with mu¬
cus, but there are no puncta lacrymalia , and conse¬
quently no tears. The iris is yellowish; the pupil
in form of a v, reversed. The opening to the ear is
not larger than the prick of a pin ; that of the blow¬
hole is placed on the top of the head, precisely
between the eyes, and resembles a crescent with its
horns looking forward. Neither the dorsal fin nor
the tail have any osseous parts in the interior, and
the former is incapable of any separate movement,
and is composed almost wholly of fat.
The general shape and appearance of the porpoise
may be seen in the accompanying Plate, fig. 1. Its
flesh is dark-coloured and gorged with blood, and
covered with a fatty membrane about an inch thick,
which is quite white, and on heating is reduced almost
entirely to an oil similar to that of the other Cetag,
but very fine and much esteemed. The colour on the
upper part of the body is a deep bluish black, fading
away on the sides till it acquires a silvery whiteness on
224
THE COMMON PORPOISE.
the abdomen. The pectorals are brownish, though
they rise from a white ground. The teeth, accord-
23 23
ing to Fr. Cuyier, are in all ninety-two; they
are all equally flat and cutting, straight, and some¬
what rounded at the edge. The brain is large and
convex, and formed of numerous and deep convo¬
lutions lying over the cerebellum. Of all animals,
the only other groups which in this respect resemble
man, are the dolphins and the monkeys.
The Porpoise is found in all the seas of Europe,
in the Atlantic Ocean, and in the Mediterranean.
In a late report of a committee of the House of
Commons on the public works of Ireland, it is stated
“ that Porpoises abound in almost innumerable
shoals on the western shores of Irelandlocalities
certainly pre-eminently suited to their tastes. It is
to be regretted that they are not there made the
objects of regular pursuit, for it could not fail to be
highly useful to poor and unfortunate Ireland to
convert these shoals to an economic purpose, not
only for the sake of the oil, which is of the purest
kind, but also for the skins, as alluded to at the
conclusion of this article. The porpoises form them¬
selves into considerable shoals, the individuals of
which frequently swim in a line one before another,
never showing at the surface more than the upper
part of their body, and in such a way that they ap¬
pear to make a revolving motion on themselves.
They appear never to leave the coasts, and are
never met with in the high seas. They ascend the
THE COMMON PORPOISE.
225
rivers when led by the pursuit of fish, but do not in
general pass the place where the salt and fresh
water mix. It does not seem ascertained whether
they are migratory in their habits. The inhabitants
of Iceland fish them principally in the month of
June ; according to Fabricius, it is principally in
summer they frequent the coasts of Greenland ; and
it has been remarked, that it is especially in winter
and early spring they are met with on the northern
coasts of France: these facts are in favour of the
supposition.
When the surface of the sea is smooth, they are
often seen to spring out of the water, and to make
considerable leaps, as if romping and amusing them¬
selves. This is especially the case in the fine wea¬
ther of summer, which is supposed to be their
rutting season; and then they appear to be very
combative and furious, and blind alike to all danger,
risk, and snares. At this time they sometimes furi¬
ously dash against a vessel, or precipitate themselves
upon the shore. According to Anderson, they carry
their young six months; the cub at birth is about
twenty inches long, and the mother, as in all the
other genera, watches over it with the most tender
care. In ten yeai-s it is stated to have acquired its
full growth.
The food of the Porpoise is chiefly fish, which it
pursues with great rapidity and seizes with great
address. They are occasionally observed in numbers
to pursue the shoals of herring, mackerel, &c. which
they drive into the bays under great apparent terror.
VOL. VI. Y
22!3
THE COMMON PORPOISE.
They are also believed to be great enemies to the
salmon fisheries, and salmon hunts are frequently
witnessed. It is impossible to view without asto¬
nishment the rapidity of their movements, and all
their turnings and twistings in pursuit of their prey:
the salmon are often observed to spring several
yards out of the water, but from the quickness of
their foes, it seems impossible they should escape.
The Porpoise was at one time, even in these
countries, esteemed a voluptuous article of food ;
Malcolm IV. granted to the monastery of Dun-
fermling those which were caught in its neighbour¬
hood ; and it is said to have been introduced at the
tables of the old English nobility as late as the time
of Queen Elizabeth. It was eaten with a sauce of
bread-crumbs and vinegar. Much later than this, it
was a great article of consumption in some countries
professing the Roman Catholic faith, especially during
the season of Lent; and accordingly, in spring, it
was the peculiar object of pursuit. Sailors on long
voyages, in lack of fresh provisions, were often happy
to have recourse to it. Thus Captain Colnett, in
1793, narrates, that, when off the coast of Mexico in
the Pacific, they saw Porpoises in abundance, and
took many of them, which they mixed with their salt
pork, and so made excellent sausages; they became,
he adds, our ordinary food (Loc. Cit. 124 ). With
modern times a change has taken place in the tastes
of cultivated society; but in high northern latitudes
porpoises are still, as they have ever been, highly
esteemed as articles of food. Thus Egede states, that
THE COMMON PORPOISE. 227
the flesli is by the Greenlander reckoned a great
dainty; and in the oil, they find a beverage than
which, according to their taste, nothing can be more
delicious.
In some parts of North America the skin of the
Porpoise, like that of the Beluga, is tanned and
dressed with considerable care. At first it is nearly
an inch thick, but it is shaved much thinner, till it
becomes somewhat transparent, and is then made
into articles of wearing apparel: it also supplies ex¬
cellent coverings for carriages.
In Plate xix. fig. 2., along with the common
Porpoise, will be seen the representation of another
variety. This is
THE PORPOISE OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
Pliocsena Capensis, Dussumier , Cuvier (R. A. 289),
Fr. Cuvier (Mam.),
Which was first described by Dussumier from an
individual taken in the Cape road-stead; where,
however, it is not very common. Its length was
about four feet; its colour almost wholly black. It
did not appear to swim with much velocity; the pec¬
torals are small; the spiracle is somewhat behind the
eyes; the teeth appear to be in all ninety-
eight.
The next species we introduce is by much the
largest and most remarkable of the genus. It is
228
«
THE GRAMPUS.
PLATE XX.
I
Pliocspna Grampus.—Delphinus Grampus, Hunter. Desm .—
Porcus Marinus Major, Crantz , Gesner.
The common Grampus, so well known round the
British, and more especially the Scottish shores,
under that appellation. As we believe that this
remarkable animal is the original of very many of
the alleged species of Dolphin, so called, to guard
against mistake, it will be necessary to introduce a
few words in explanation. We take it to be the
Delphinus Orca of Fabricius, Bonnaterre, and La-
eepede ; the ButsJcopf of Anderson, and the second
kind of ButsJcopf of Martens; the Epee de Mer or
Sword-fish of Anderson and Crantz, and of which
Bonnaterre and Lacepede made their Delphinus
Gladiator. We regard it also as the Epaulard of the
French, a name which has been very vaguely and
generally applied; it is also the second Grampus
of Mr. limiter; which the French naturalists, from
a figure sent them, called the Delph. Ventricosus.
Finally, it is the fish which the Americans have long
been in the habit of denominating the Killer or
Thrasher , from its reputed pugnacious and cruel
disposition.
PLATE
THE GRAMPUS.
I
229
The name Grampus seems to be a corruption of the
French : their Grand-poison was, by the Normans of
the middle age, pronounced Grapois , whence in all
probability the English Grampus, to which appel¬
lation its dimensions well entitle it. It is remark¬
able that we are still in want of an accurate descrip¬
tion of this species.
An examination of the Plate will render few
words necessary regarding its external appearance.
It is a great animal, half the size of the Greenland
full grown whale, being often seen from twenty-five
to thirty feet in length, and ten or twelve in circum¬
ference. Its snout is short and roundish; the lower
jaw is somewhat bent upwards, broader but not so
long as the upper. The teeth are forty-four
in all; they are strong, large, conical and somewhat
hooked; those furthest back being flattened at the
summit. The dorsal fin, nearly on the middle of
the body, is four feet high and upwards; the pec¬
torals too, are very huge and somewhat oval. The
tail is very powerful. The colour is black above,
suddenly giving place to white on the sides, winch
is continued over the abdomen. Generally, behind
the eye, there is a large white patch, somewhat like
an eyelid.
The favourite abode of the Grampus seems to be
the northern regions, on the coast of Greenland,
Spitzbergen, and Davis Straits. It is also frequently
seen in small herds in the British seas and friths,
we believe, at all seasons. It often visits the Frith
230
THE GRAMPUS.
of Forth; and according to Dr. Fleming, it goes
up the Frith of Tay nearly as far as the salt water
reaches, almost every tide at flood, during the
months of July and August, in pursuit of salmon
of which it devours immense numbers. Mr. Hunter
mentions that one twenty-four feet long was, in
1759, captured in the Thames; two more were
taken in 1772 , one eighteen and the other twenty-
one feet long; and in 1793 another thirty-one
feet long, in the same river; w r hilst another, that
same year, was captured in the Loire, measuring
eighteen feet. One was caught in Lynn harbour in
1829. This animal was discovered with its dorsal fin
rising above the water. It was immediately driven
into the shallows and attacked by the boatmen;
but they not being provided with proper weapons,
despatched it with much difficulty, by means of
great knives and sharpened oars. The groans of
the poor animal are described as having been very
horrible, and the effusion of blood very great. Being
at length deprived of life, it was towed up the river
to the town. It was twenty-one feet three inches
long, following the curve of the hack, and nineteen
feet in a straight line; the base of the dorsal fin
was about two feet and a half, and the height four
feet; the width of the tail was seven feet (Loudon s
Mag. iv. 338). Though these animals are cautious
as well as daring, yet we believe such notices of
capture could easily he multiplied. It is stated
that they are not unfrequently seen in the Atlantic
Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea; they are even
THE GRAMPUS. 231
said to be occasionally met with in all seas, though
with what truth we cannot determine.
From the preceding description it will appear
that this is a very powerful animal. Sir Joseph
Banks communicated to the Count Lacepede the
particulars of the capture of one taken in the Thames
in 1772. After being pierced with three harpoons,
it pulled the attached boat twice from Blackwall to
Greenwich, and once as far as Deptford, against the
tide, running at the rate of eight miles an hour; and
for a long time unimpeded by the lance-wounds
which were inflicted when it came to the surface.
So long as it was alive, no boat would venture to
approach it; and the dying efforts of this formidable
creature w r ere very terrible. It was finally killed
opposite Greenwich Hospital.
The Grampus has the character of being exceed¬
ingly voracious and warlike. It devours an immense
number of fishes of all sizes, and especially large ones,
including cod, halibut, skate, and turbot. When
pressed with hunger, it is said to throw itself on
every thing it meets with, not sparing the smaller
porpoises and dolphins: Hunter found a portion of
a porpoise in the stomach of one which he examined.
It is also said to make war on seals; to espy them
on the rocks and ice, when basking or asleep; to
drive them if possible 'with its fins into the sea,
where they immediately become an easy prey. They
are often seen in small herds of six or eight indi¬
viduals, apparently chasing and amusing themselves;
and when thus in company, it is alleged that they
232
THE GRAMPUS.
frequently attack the true whale,—not the young
and smaller only, hut even the greatest giants of the
deep. They bite and tear their flesh M r ith their
powerful teeth ; oppose their agility to its weight;
their number to its size; their address to its power;
their audacity to its strength ; thus they annoy,
torment, and cover with blood and wounds their
mighty foe. Nay more, they are stated exactly to
resemble so many furious mastiffs fighting with a
wild bull. Some seize the tail and endeavour to
impede its murderous blows, whilst others attack the
head. They seize hold of the lips and tear them
away ; of the tongue, and devour it; and cease not
the contest till they are finally victorious. They
have received the appellation of Bcilcenarum Tyran¬
nies from the accurate Fabricius, and hence their
popular name of whale-killers. We apprehend
that those bloody fights, recorded with such minute
accuracv in all the works on the Cetacea, stand in
some need of confirmation.
We shall next notice
233
THE P. GRISEUS.
PLATE XXI.
P. Griseus of Cuvier (Ann. Mus. xix. and Rig. Ani. 290),
Fr. Cuvier (Mam.).
This handsome looking animal has been obtained
only on the west coast of France, and it has been
after years of labour*, and many mistakes, that,
through the united efforts of Cuvier, Dumeril, and
especially of D’Orbigny, that its true characters have
been ascertained. Even externally it will be observed
to differ widely from the other species, and the in¬
ternal differences of the bones of the cranium, &c.
are equally marked. The head is large, obtuse, and
somew r hat rounded ; the upper jaw is several inches
larger than the louver; the dorsal fin commences
about the middle of the back, and is elevated and
pointed; the pectorals are very much developed ;
the tail also is large. The total length is ten or
eleven feet; the colour is a bluish-black above, and
a dull white beneath; and these merge into each
other on the flanks. There are no teeth in the
upper jaw and only eight in the lower.
At first glance it has some resemblance to the
Peductor or Caing Whale, and in some particulars
of their history, as their associating in groups and
uttering loud cries, they agree. The slightest com-
VOL. VI. Z
234
THE P. GRISEUS.
parison, however, exhibits many distinctive charac¬
ters. Their heads are quite differently shaped, and
the dental formularies are, of this species —, origi¬
nally pointed, but soon blunted; and of the Deductor
conical and sharp, and locking into each other
like the teeth of a rat-trap. The Deductor is twice
the size of the Griseus; the dorsal fin, in this latter,
is much more elevated; the colouring, too, is diffe¬
rent. D’Orbigny mentions that two out of the
four stranded in 1822 had the dorsal fin destroyed,
but whether from disease or the attacks of other
animals could not be determined. That it was
violently removed was however apparent.
Individuals of this species have usually been
brought to the coast by the violent tempests which
sweep into the Bay of Biscay and agitate its
troubled waters. They are famous for uttering loud
cries, and thus attracted the attention of Baron
Cuvier; but as we have already alluded to this cir¬
cumstance (see p. 55, 56), we shall not dwell upon
it in this place.
THE STRIPED PORPOISE.
PLATE XXII. Fig. 1.
P. Bivittatus_Delphinus Bivittatus, Less.
The only other species of this extensive and well
known genus, which we shall submit to the atten¬
tion of our readers, is remarkable as being one of the
Figf.l.THE STRIPED PORPOISE. Kg'. 2. THE FUE.NAS OF THE CHILIANS.
O v
PLATE 22 .
I
THE STRIPED PORPOISE. 235
smallest of the whole group, and scarcely equaling
one-fiftieth part of the length of the largest genus,
—the rorqual. It is interesting as exhibiting a
fair specimen of those many beautifully coloured
varieties, which abound more especially in the
southern seas, and excite the admiration of those
who have had the good fortune to behold them.
Though placed by Lesson among the Dolphins, yet
as the shape of the head differs from them and cor¬
responds with the Porpoises, we shall, as he himself
advises (p. 338), arrange them with these latter.
This species was seen not far from the Falkland
Islands. For a time it followed the vessel in a high
sea, frequently springing over the billows, and ap¬
parently enjoyed the resistance experienced from
its agitated waves. It is about two feet and a half
long, and ten inches thick. It is short and also
slender in its forms. The upper half of its body is
of a deep shining black colour, the belly and lower
jaw are white. There is a large streak of satiny-
white running along each side of its body, but in¬
terrupted in the middle, opposite the dorsal fin,
where the two portions of the stripe thus separated
enlarge. The snout is short and conical, the dorsal
fin is moderately high, black, and placed in the
middle of the body; the tail is brown and scooped
out in the middle; the pectoral fins are thin and
white, except at the anterior edge, which is black.
236
Thirteenth Genus.— DELPHINUS.
Having a convex forehead; the snout, in form of a beak, is
distinguished from the forehead by a marked furrow.
We have already mentioned, that formerly the genus
Delphinus included the four preceding genera and
the succeeding genus. Lacepecle, after separating
the Delphinapterse, introduced eleven species into
his history; and Cuvier, after withdrawing the por -
poises likewise, and introducing other improvements
into the classification, reduced the number of living
species, established in 1823, to five (Oss. Foss. v.
275). Though the old genus Delphinus has now
been broken down into no less than nine subdi¬
visions, and there are many species in these ; yet in
the genus of proper Dolphins the number of species
already amounts to nearly twenty, and it is the
opinion of those most conversant with the subject,
that this forms but a small proportion of the existing
varieties. This great increase has been owing prin¬
cipally to the discoveries of recent voyagers, and
these chiefly French naturalists, who have been sent
out by their government in connexion with national
voyages of discovery for scientific and commercial
purposes; and who, after being rewarded for their
labours, were also enabled, at the public expense,
THE DOLPHIN.
237
to communicate their discoveries in splendid works,
far beyond the risk of private adventure. Not to go
so far back as Peron, we shall only name Quoy and
Gaimard, the authors of the Zoologie de L’ Uranie ;
Lesson and Carnot, who published the Zoologie de
La Coquille; and along with them M. Dussumier,
who, on his own account, made several voyages to
China, and, unfortunately for science, died before
he had digested and published the vast stock of his
materials. It is by these gentlemen that the greatest
number has within these few years been added to
the list.
The general features which distinguish the Dol¬
phins are few and simple. Thpir snout is con¬
siderably elongated, broad at the base, round at the
extremity, resembling considerably a goose’s-bill,
whence they derive their common appellation. The
beak is always flattened transversely, largest at its
posterior parts, and both jaws are supplied with
many and sharp teeth; it is also separated from the
forehead by a distinct groove. The dorsal fin is
always single.
It used to be held that the Common Dolphin w r as
an inhabitant of every sea throughout the world.
This appeared the more credible since the strength
of the animals, and the velocity of their swimming,
exceeding that of a ship in full sail, would readily
account for their appearance in all seas, and even
at the opposite poles. A very different opinion,
however, is now gaining ground, confirmatory of a
sentiment of Buffons in relation to land animals.
238
THE DOLPHIN.
viz. that every distinct species has its distinct lo¬
cality, and this circumscribed within rather narrow
limits. It is more difficult of course to ascertain the
truth of this proposition as it regards the inhabitants
of the water than of the land, and yet many facts
go to establish its truth with regard to the Cetacea.
Much, however, remains to be done on this and
other points, ere we arrive at a perfect natural
history of the order. All that we can attempt in
this place, is to offer some remarks on the species
which we have exhibited in the plates.
THE COMMON DOLPHIN.
PLATE XXIII.
Delpliinus Delpliis, LinnBon., Lacepede, Cuvier , &c.—Oie de
Mer, Goose of the Sea.
This animal is perhaps better known as the ficti¬
tious creature of unrestrained imagination and of
heroic poetry, than the sober Goose of the Sea. It
is uniformly considered as the Dolphin of antiquity ;
the original whence were produced those fantastic
beings, endowed with all those extraordinary at¬
tributes and charms with which it was clothed. It
is the Hieros Ichthys , or Sacred Fish of the Greeks,
to which they originally paid divine honours, and
■which they afterwards embellished with all the
illusions of unbridled fancy. It was also sacred to
their god Apollo ; the reason assigned for which is,
that when Apollo appeared to the Cretans, and
obliged them to settle on the coast of Delphis,
THE COMMON DOLPHIN
Cuvier.
PLATE 23.
THE COMMON DOLPHIN. 239
*
where lie founded that oracle so famous throughout
antiquity, he did so under the form of a Dolphin.
Apollo was thus, according to Visconti, adored
not only in connexion with the Delphine province,
but the Deiphinus fish. He was worshipped at
Delphi with Dolphins for his symbols. The ‘ancients
respected the Dolphin as a benefactor of mankind;
they cherished the tale of Phalantus, the founder of
Tarentum, being carried on shore by a Dolphin
when wrecked on the coast of Italy; and the story
of the musician Arion, who, when about to be thrown
overboard by the sailors that they might possess
themselves of his wealth, begged that he might be
permitted to play some melodious tune, and then
threw himself into the sea; upon which one of the
many Dolphins, which had been attracted by the
music, carried him on its back safe to Tanarus ;
or rather, perhaps, according to Ovid,
Secure he sits, and with harmonious strains
Requites his bearer for his friendly pains.
It is also recorded that the shield and sword of
Ulysses bore an image of the Dolphin, and it is
certain it is seen in very ancient medals and coins.
It very early appeared on the shield of some of the
princes of France; it gave a name to a fair province
of that empire, and hence a title to the heir-apparent
of the crown.
Scarcely less fabulous are those other narratives
which have been transmitted on the testimony of
the early naturalists. They tell us that the Dolphin
240
THE COMMON DOLPHIN.
made itself familiar with man, and conceived a
warm attachment for him. Pliny narrates that in
Barbary, near the town of Hippo, a Dolphin used
to frequent the shore, and accept of food from any
hand which supplied it; it would mix among those
who were bathing, would allow them to mount its
hack, would consign itself with docility to their
direction, and obey them with as much celerity as
precision (lib. ix. chap. 48). Still more extraordi¬
nary is that other tale the ancients relate in illus¬
tration of the assertion that the Dolphin was yet
more partial to children than to adults. Thus,
according to Pliny, in several chronicles it was
recorded that a Dolphin which had penetrated the
lake of Lucrinus, in Campania, every day received
bread from the hand of a child, answering to his
call, and transporting him on its back to school to
the other side of the lake. This intimacy continued
for several years, when the boy dying, the affec¬
tionate Dolphin, overwhelmed with grief, soon sunk
under its bereavement. For such stories as these,
which might be easily multiplied from Herodotus,
Plutarch, &c. we apprehend that most of our readers
will have but little patience ; and we therefore
dismiss them with the well known apophthegm,
Sed quid non Grecia mendax
Audit in historia ?
The Common Dolphin is usually six or seven
feet long, sometimes nine or ten. Its proportions
on the whole are pleasing, and admirably adapted
THE COMMON DOLPHIN. 241
for swimming, as may be seen in the Plate, to which
we refer in lieu of many dry details. The pectoral
is oval and placed very low ; the tail is large and
powerful. Its tints, though not ga} r , are attractive.
It is black on the back, greyish on the flanks, and
white underneath, with a peculiar and satiny glisten¬
ing when in, or newly taken out of the water, which
is striking and beautiful. It may be well, however,
here to remark, that “ the Dolphin with its many
dying colours” mentioned in many books, and sung
by modern poets, is not this but quite another animal,
belonging to a different class of the animal king¬
dom ; it is a true fish, the beautifully coloured
Coryplicena Hippuris , the Dorado of the Portu¬
guese, and it would be w r ell if its popular name
were altogether dropped. The eyes of the true Dol¬
phin are rather small, and supplied with eye-lids.
The pupil is in the form of a heart. Mr. Rapp
has carefully described the lachrymal gland, which
Mr. Hunter had previously pointed out. The smell
must be very imperfect, since the same anatomist
could find no vestiges of the olfactory nerve, and
there was only one small foramen in the ethmoidal
plate. The meatus auditorius is apparent, though
very small. The jaws are equal, and the teeth
mount up to - J, ^ = one hundred and ninety;
they are pointed, slender, and somewhat curved,
at equal distances from each other, and when the
mouth is shut they lock into one another. There are
seven cervical, twelve dorsal, and fifty-two lumbar
VOL. VI.
A A
242
THE COMMON DOLPHIN.
vertebrae. Finally, the brain of the Dolphin, as of
the porpoise, is very large, and developed to an
extent which is quite extraordinary among the lower
animals. Its weight, in relation to that of the whole
body has been stated as one to twenty-five, which
is the same as that in man; the average of four
accounts stated in Cuviers Comparative Anatomy,
is one-fiftieth of the whole weight: in the castor
the proportion is as one to two hundred and ninety,
and in the elephant as one to five hundred. This
would lead to the supposition that the intelligence
and mental capacity of the Dolphin are considerable ;
little direct proof indeed exists, owing to the dif¬
ficulty of observing the habits of the animal; but
any indications which have been noticed are favour¬
able to the supposition.
Few if any of the order appear to be more raven¬
ous than the Dolphins. They live upon the medusae
and fishes, especially upon flat fish, cod, mullets,
pilchards, and herrings. They are so bold as to
approach the nets, and have thus sometimes been
supposed to be the auxiliaries of the fishermen.
The Common Dolphin is an inhabitant of the
European Seas, of the Atlantic, and Mediterranean.
It is more common in the temperate zone than in
places that are further south. It is true that other
species of this genus frequent the seas of Africa,
Asia, and America; but it is by no means satis¬
factorily ascertained that the species now under
consideration has this extensive range. The opposite
opinion seems to be much more probable. They
THE COMMON DOLPHIN.
243
navigate the waters of the ocean in more or less
numerous troops, and their vigorous springs and
rapid natation, which is daily observed by voyagers,
has long made them famous. The Common Dol¬
phin has long been peculiarly signalized for these
qualities, which however it enjoys only in com¬
mon with the larger number of its congeners, and
on these points it does not merit any particular dis¬
tinction. To swim with the rapidity of an arrow,
to shoot ahead of vessels which are scudding before
the breeze, to spring out of the water, and over the
waves, are qualifications possessed alike by all the
smaller Cetacea which live in troops in the ocean.
It may serve to exhibit the change of tastes
produced by modem refinement, to mention, that
Dr. Caius, the celebrated founder of the College at
Cambridge which bears his name, records that a
Dolphin taken in his time was thought a fit and
worthy present to the Duke of Norfolk, who again
distributed part of it among his friends; it was
roasted and eaten with porpoise sauce.
The next Dolphin we present to the notice of the
reader is that of the Benedictin Pernetty
244
PERNETTY’S DOLPHIN.
PLATE XXIV.
/
Delphinus Pemettii, Desm. Blainvillei, Lesson.
On the 30th of October the vessel of Bougainville,
in which Pernetty sailed, being near the Cape-
de-Verd Islands, was surrounded by about a hun¬
dred Dolphins, which approached very near them.
“ They appeared,” says Pernetty, “ to have come only
for the purpose of amusing us; they made extra¬
ordinary leaps out of the water; many of these in
their capering vaulted four feet high, and turned
over two or three times in the air.”
One of these Dolphins which was taken, weighed
a hundred pounds; its beak was slender, and covered
with a thick and greyish skin. “ I think,” says the
author, “ it was of that species which is named the
Monk of the Sea , for the anterior part of the head
terminated in a hood near the root of the muzzle,
and there presented something like the edge of a
cloak ; the back w r as black, and the abdomen of a
pearly-grey colour, verging to yellowish, dappled
with spots, some black and others of an iron-grey
colour : the teeth were sharp, white, and in the
form of those of the pike.” To these peculiar cha¬
racters, Pernetty adds those which are common to
all the genus, and subjoins one which, we believe,
'MilUL'KXT SitX'JKHffcr
THE DOLPHIN OF PEIINETTY. 245
is often referred to many of them, viz. that they
exhale an odonr which is so strong and penetrating,
that whatever substance is impregnated with it,
retains it for many days, in spite of all that can
be done to overcome it.
Pernetty’s figure is well drawn; the beak is
longer than in the common variety, and the general
proportions are smaller; the lower jaw is curved
and longer than the upper; the dorsal fin is more
pointed and placed further back.
As furnishing a lively sketch of the habits of the
whole genus, we subjoin an account of a hunt of
flying-fish, as narrated by an eye-witness, a fair and
interesting journalist. “ The other morning a large
. Dolphin which had been following the ship for some
distance, and was sparkling most gloriously in the
sun, suddenly detected a shoal of flying-fish rising
from the sea at some distance : With the rapidity of
lightning, he wheeled round,—made one tremen¬
dous leap, and so timed his fall as to arrive fairly
at the place where our little friends, the flying-fish,
were forced to drop into the sea to refresh their
weary wing. A flight of sea-gulls now joined in
the pursuit; we gave up our proteges for lost, when
to our great joy we beheld them rising again, for
they had merely skimmed the wave, and thus re¬
cruited contiuued their flight. Their restless foe
pursued them with giant strides, now cutting the
wave, which flashed and sparkled with the reflection
of his brilliant coat, and then giving one huge leap,
which brought him up with his prey; they seemed
246
THE DOLPHIN OF PERNETTY.
conscious that escape was impossible; their flight
became shorter and more flurried, whilst the Dol¬
phin, animated by the certain prospect of success,
grew more vigorous in his bounds : exhausted, they
dropped their wings, and fell one by one into the jaws
of the Dolphin, or were snapt up by the vigilant
gulls. (Sketches of Bermuda by Miss S. H. Lloyd ,
Lond. 1835.)
THE LEAD-COLOURED DOLPHIN.
PLATE XXY. Fig. 1.
Delpliinus Plumbeus, Dussumier , Fr. Cuvier.
A reference to the plate will supersede the ne¬
cessity of giving a long description of this species.
The length is about eight feet; perpendicular height,
where largest, one-sixth of the whole length; greatest
thickness scarcely so much. The whole body is of
a uniform leaden greyish tint, except the extremity
and under part of the lower jaw which are whitish.
Teeth one hundred and thirty-six.
O u
This species was found on the Malabar coast, where
it is abundant. “ They frequent,” says M. Dussu¬
mier,” the shores and pursue the shoals of pilchards.
Its movements are much less rapid than those which
are found in the midst of the ocean. The natives
capture them in nets, but with much difficulty, be¬
cause they seem to suspect the intentions of the
fishermen, and very cautiously avoid the snare.
The noise of a musket makes them fly in all direc-
THE LEAD COLOURED DOLPHIN
PLATE 25
THE LEAD-COLOURED DOLPHIN. 247
tions, and after having sunk under water, they take
a direction different from that which their plunge
would have indicated.” These circumstances mani¬
fest something of that mental capacity, with which
it is generally supposed the Dolphin is endowed,
but which, from the veil which covers their habits,
it is not easy to establish.
THE BRIDLED DOLPHIN.
PLATE XXY. Fig. 2.
Delpliinus Frsenatus, DussFr. Cuvier.
The length of this specimen was four feet and a half
long ; the height and thickness of its body form
one-sixth of the length. The spiracle is in the per¬
pendicular over the eyes. The dorsal fin is nearly
in the middle of the body; its length more than
one-fifth of the whole body; its form triangular; its
anterior margin straight, and equal to the base ; it
is very pointed. The tail has an acuminated edge,
fine and cutting ; its breadth is about a foot. The
pectoral is long and slender. It is black on the
back ; this colour grows pale on the flanks; the belly
is white : its head is black above; its sides are of
an ash colour, and a hand of a deeper shade forms
a moustache on the cheek, which extends from the
angle of the mouth underneath the eyes. The
number of teeth has not yet been ascertained.
This Dolphin, a male, was harpooned thirty
leagues to the south of Cape-de-Verd. It formed
248
THE BRIDLED DOLPHIN.
one of a very numerous troop, which, immediately
took to flight on this one being captured. The dark
coloured band on the chops of this Dolphin, is the
character which induced M. Dussumier to give it
the name of Frsenatus.
DELPHINUS SUPERCILIOSUS, Lesson.
PLATE XXVI.
The next species we shall adduce of this genus is a
very beautiful small variety, for the account of which
we are indebted to M. Lesson.
M. Lesson observed this species after doubling
Cape Horn in south latitude 45°. M. Garnot
when returning to France from Port Jackson, in the
Castle-Forbes, subsequently killed one and described
it as follows :—Its length was four feet two inches.
The snout was tolerably long, and distinguished from
the forehead by a deep furrow. The dorsal fin was
placed somewhat behind the middle of the body,
and terminated in an acute point. All the upper
parts of the body are of a brilliant blackish-blue
colour, and the sides and under part shine with a
silvery whiteness. The pectorals are brown, though
placed on the white ground of the sides. What
especially characterises this Dolphin is a large white
streak over the eye, reaching to the front; and
another mark like a white ribbon running along the
sides of the body near the tail. Teeth
50 30
29 *29‘
snsonioagtias shrihjim
DELPIIINUS SUPERCILTOSUS.
249
Though the markings of this species are beautiful,
yet we are free to confess that we consider it next
to impossible to convey, by any pictorial representa¬
tion, an adequate idea of the brilliancy and variety
of the colouring of many of these dolphins, which
inhabit the southern and equatorial seas : they rival
the hues even of the feathered tribes of the tropics.
Thus, we believe, it will generally be allowed that
it would be difficult, with our most highly finished
colouring, to approach the appearance presented by
the original of the New Zealand species, thus minutely
described by Quoy and Gaimard. “ Colour dark-
brown above, dull white on the lower part of beak
and body; a large yellow stripe commences at the
eye and terminates, growing narrower bn the flanks,
under the dorsal fin; the tail is of a slate-colour,
pale underneath; the pectorals of the colour of
white lead, and also the dorsal, tipt round with
black : there is a black line over the snout, become-
ing larger towards the eye, which it surrounds : this
line is accompanied, on either side, with a white
margin; the whole body shines brilliantly.
But we must bid adieu to these numerous dol¬
phins, with a short notice of
VOL. VI.
B B
/
250
THE FtJNENAS OP THE CHILIANS.
See PLATE XXII. Fig. 2.
D. Lunatus, Less., Fr. Cur.
Tins species is massive in its form ; it is about three
feet in length; its beak is slender ; its dorsal fin
round at the top; its colour above, a clear fawn
colour, gradually passing into white beneath; a
dark-brown and accurately defined cross is seen on
the back on a line with the pectorals, and anterior
to the dorsal fin.
' “ This small dolphin,” says Lesson, “ destroyed
an immense quantity of fish, and every morning at
sun-rise, we noticed numerous troops of them, which
unceasingly were diving, and appeared very busy in
hunting their prey. By ten o’clock in the morning,
when they had well breakfasted, they devoted them¬
selves to play, and seemed delighted with their
leaps, and their striving which should rise the
highest.” He adds, “ we have seen this species only
in the Bay of Talcaquana, in the province of Con¬
ception, but there it is in very great numbers.”
251
DELPHINUS YOUNGII (Fossile).
As after most of the other genera we have introduced
some slight notice of nearly allied fossiles, so we
shall here mention that a specimen of a dolphin in
a fossile state was discovered in 1819, by Mr. Young
of Whitby, in the vast aluminous schistus of the
Yorkshire coast. It was embedded in the alum rock,
where it is washed by the tide, and is covered at high
water, half a mile east of Whitby harbour, and ten
yards from the face of the steep cliff which there
fronts the German Ocean. The cliff at that place
is about a hundred and eighty feet in height, which
of course was the depth of this skeleton from the
surface, before that part of the cliff which formerly
covered it w r as washed away. Though the skeleton
was wonderfully entire, yet we are not surprised
that Mr. Young found difficulty in identifying it
with any living species : in all probability it belongs
to a new one. As there is nothing conclusive con¬
cerning this specimen, nor concerning several others
which are alluded to, we refer for more ample details
to the Wernerian Trans, vol. iii. and to the Geology
of the Yorkshire Coast by Messrs. Young and Bird.
Fourteenth Genus— DELPHINORHYNCUS.
The distinguishing characters of this genus are, a prolonged
snout, with a thin and long beak, which is not separated
from the forehead by a furrow. The form of the jaws is
straight, and they are both supplied with numerous and
sharp teeth. The dorsal fin is single.
M. Blainyille introduced this generic distinction,
and proposed its designation. The Cuviers, Des-
maret, Lesson, and many others have adopted it.
The difference is not great, yet it may he found
useful in correct classification.
The only representation of this genus we supply
is the
DELPHINORHYNCUS OF BREDA.
PLATE XXVII.
Delphinorhyncus Bredanensis, Less .—D. Rostratus, Cuv _
Delpliinus a long bee. Fr. Cuvier.
Cuvier received from M. Yan Breda, professor of
natural history at Gand, a drawing which, with an
examination of certain crania, led him to recognise
the existence of a new and authentic species of the
order (Oss. Foss. v. 400). The specimen of which
our Plate is a representation was stranded at Brest
and there faithfully delineated. The animal ex-
BELPHINORHYNCUS OF BREDA. 253
amined by M. Van Breda was eight feet long; its
dorsal fin was elevated, and near the middle of the
body; its pectorals were scythe-shaped; its tail
crescent -shaped and curved in the middle. But what
especially characterises it is the profile of the head,
which insensibly loses itself in that of the snout,
contrary to what is remarked in the Dolphin genus.
All the upper parts of this species are of a sooty-
black, and the lower of a rich rosy hue. These
portions are not separated by a distinct and uni¬
form line; on the contrary, their junction is quite
irregular, and many small black patches are figured
on the fairer colour. The total number of teeth are
from eighty-four to ninety-two. It would appear to
inhabit the Atlantic. This appears to be all the
information which has been procured regarding this
animal.
254
Fifteenth Genus.— SOOSOO.
Tlie beak is long, slender, compressed at the sides, and ex¬
panded at the extremity, so that it is larger at this part
than in the middle; it is also somewhat curved at its ter¬
mination.
THE SOOSOO OF THE GANGES.
PLATE XXVIII.
Soosoo Gangeticus, Lesson .—Delphinus Gangeticus, Rouburyh ,
Lebeck, &c.—Platanista of Fr. Cuvier.
Of all tlie beaked Dolphins, says Cuvier, the most
extraordinary, and that perhaps which most merits
being formed into a distinct genus is the Soosoo of
the Ganges.
This genus at present comprehends but one living
species, which is generally described under the name
of the Dolphin of the Ganges ; the name Soosoo is
that given it by the natives in Bengal. Cuvier
thinks it is probably the Platanista of Pliny. Tlie
bony frame-work proves the peculiarities of this
genus more than any other portion of it, and on
this Cuvier dwells with his wonted acuteness.
(L. C. 279.) Of the manifest characters, the great
lateral compression of the lower jaw, which approxi¬
mates the two rows of teeth, and the great length of
the symphysis, are the most remarkable. Accord-
THE SOOSOO OF THE GANGES.
THE SOOSOO OP THE GANGES. 255
ing to Cuvier, tlie long symphysis and the maxillary
crests approximate it to the Cachalots.
The body of the Soosoo is rather longhand slender,
thickest about the fore part, and thence tapering to
the tail. The head is obtuse, somewhat acumi¬
nated at the upper and anterior part, and suddenly
tapering to a long and slender, hut strong beak.
Both jaws are very strong, nearly equal, and almost
straight; their length is nearly one-sixth of the
whole animal. The pectorals are of an oblique fan-
shape, about a foot and a half long, and a foot broad
at the posterior margin, which is scalloped. Instead
of a dorsal f.n, there is only a projecting angle,
somewhat nearer the tail than the snout. The tail
is two feet and a half broad, and festooned. The
colour is a shining pearly grey, with here and there
lighter coloured spots, particularly when the animal
is old. Teeth ■ ,! ° , 120. Those before are larger,
30 30’ ° ’
sharper, more approximated, and somewhat curved ;
they become gradually smaller, shorter, and more
remote from each other, as they approach the throat ;
and they lock into those of the opposite jaw. The
eyes are exceedingly minute, about a line in dia¬
meter, of a bright shining black colour, situated four
inches above the angle of the mouth, and sunk
deep in their small round orbits. The spiracle is
situated on the summit of the head; it is linear,
and somewhat like the letter f y the length running
longitudinally along the body. The meatus audi-
torius is open and observable. There are seven cer-
256 THE SOOSOO OF THE GANGES.
vical vertebras, eleven or twelve dorsal and twenty-
eight lumbar, in all fifty-six or fifty-seven.
“ They are found in great numbers,” says Dr.
Roxburgh (Asiatic Researches , vii. 176), “ in the
Ganges, even so far up as it is navigable; but seem
to delight most in the slow moving labyrinth of
rivers and creeks which intersect the delta of that
river to the south and east of Calcutta. When in
pursuit of the fish on which it feeds, it moves with
great velocity and uncommon activity ; but at all
other times, so far as I have been able to observe,
its motions are slow and heavy, often rising to the
surface of the water to breathe. Between the skin
and flesh is a coat of pale-coloured fat, more or less
tl lick, according to the state of the animal. On
this the Hindoos set a high value, as an external
remedy of great efficacy in removing pains, &c. The
flesh is like lean beef, but so far as I can learn, the
natives never eat it. In the stomach of the one
examined, rice and fragments of shells were found,
and many living ascarides, about two inches long.”
257
/
I
THE SOOSOO OF M. DE BORDA.
Soosoo Bordaii (Fossile), Cuv.
This species was discovered by the late M. de Borda
at Sort, a village about six miles from Dax, in beds
of a species of falun, which are rich in all sorts of
shells and other products of the sea. Very con¬
siderable fragments of the jaws were procured and
sent to Paris, where at first they were considered
as belonging to the crocodile of the Ganges. Cuvier,
however, speedily demonstrated that this could not
be the case, and that they must have belonged to
a cetaceous animal. According to him, its head
must have been two feet long, and its whole extent
about nine feet. From the lower jaw, he inferred
it must have been either a dolphin, in the extended
signification of that term, or a cachalot ; and from
the fragments under inspection, it was most likely
to be the latter, as none of the dolphins had the
lower jaw so formed, except the Gangeticus. An
examination, however, of the upper jaw speedily
settled this point, in as much as it had teeth, which
the cachalot has not. Cuvier concludes, that it is
certain that this Cete does not belong to any of the
species, the osteology of which is known. Tim
Gangeticus has the symphysis of the lower jaw ex-
VOL. vi. c c
258 THE SOOSOO OF M. DE HOIIDA.
tremely compressed, whilst that of this fossile is
broader than it is high. The teetli also are quite of
another form. Neither the level above the sea, nor
the relation of the specimen to the neighbouring
county, are recorded in the sources whence we
have extracted this truly interesting notice.
6Z :tIV r kT
Sixteenth Genus. —INIA.
The Inia lias the beak long like that of the Dolphin, but
cylindrical, and bristled with strong hairs; it has many
teeth, incisors anteriorly, molares posteriorly. The tem¬
poral fossa and crest are also peculiar.
I. BOTd V1ENSTS, IVOrbignv, Pr. Cuvier.
PLATE XXIX.
It is to M. D’Orbigny we are indebted for our
acquaintance with this curious animal, which he
has very properly placed in a new genus, thereby
establishing a link between the Soosoo and the
Stellerus, one of the herbiverous Cette. A\ r e have
found the Soosoo in the water of the Ganges, a
hundred miles from the ocean. But the Boliviensis
is met with thousands of miles from the sea, and it
appears to be an inhabitant solely of rivers and fresh
water lakes. It was in the early tributaries of the
Amazons, and in the lakes of High Peru, it was
found; and when M. D’Orbigny first heard of it in
these regions, he v/as not a little sceptical that he
should encounter one of the whale tribe at the foot
of the Cordilleras.
In the principality of Beira, however, where they
are in the habit of killing them for their oil, one
was harpooned, and brought to the party alive ;
INIA BOLITIENSIS.
l
260
another very young one was also at the same time
examined.
In form it resembles the Dolphins, hut the body is
shorter and nfore slender. The snout is in the form
of a long and very slender beak, almost cylindrical,
and obtuse at its extremity. The lips reach as far
hack as the line of the eye; the blow-hole runs
obliquely from before backwards, and opens so far
back as to be in the perpendicular over the pectoral
fins. The auditory opening is larger than is usual
in the Cette. The pectorals are large; the dorsal,
but little developed, is placed two-thirds down the
back; the tail is deeply forked. It has about one
hundred and thirty-four teeth ; all are rough,
and marked with deep and interrupted furrows;
anteriorly they resemble incisors, posteriorly they
have an irregular mammalory shape, which is very
peculiar. The skin is fine and smooth; the snout
is bristled sparingly with coarse and crisp hair: this
was seen also in the cub. The mother was seven
feet long; and the males are said to be double that
size. Its colour varies : commonly it is a pale blue
above, passing into a rose colour beneath; the tail
and pectorals are blue. Some are all over of a rosy
hue, others are blackish, and some are covered with
spots and streaks; the tints are paler when they
frequent the rivers, and darker when they retire
to the lakes.
This species is found in all the streams which
traverse the immense plains of the province of
IN7A BOLIYIENSIS.
261
Moxos, and which, go to form the rivers constituting
the Madieras, one of the earliest branches of the
Amazons; the animal ascends almost to the foot of
the Eastern Cordilleras, more than two thousand
one hundred miles from the sea: hut it is not pro¬
bable that it goes beyond the cascades of the river
Madieras.
This Inia comes more frequently to the surface
of the water than the marine varieties, and does
not appear so remarkable for the agility and power
of its motions. They habitually unite in little troops
of three or four individuals, and they are observed
to raise their snouts from the water whilst devouring
their prey, which appears to consist entirely of fish.
The mother exhibits all the usual affection of the
order for her young, and is all devotedness to its
well-being and safety.
2 G2
Seventeenth Genus.— OXYPT ERUS.
With two dorsal fins.
M. Refinesque Smaltz, a naturalist established in
Sicily, proposed this name for a dolphin with two
dorsal fins, which he affirmed he had seen in the
Mediterranean. The evidence he o'ave of its exist-
ence was unsatisfactory, and had not Messrs. Q.uoy
and Gaimard, in their voyage, met with another ex¬
ample of this very singular genus, it would probably
have been passed by in this place. This was the
RHINOCEROS WHALE.
Oxypterus Rhinoceros, Lesson .—Delphinus Rhinoceros,
Quoy and Gaimard.
As no individual of this species was captured, we
cannot present any plate which could be depended
upon ; we copy, however, from the atlas of Quoy and
Gaimard, a cut which will assist the imagination
and rivet the peculiarity on the memory.
We shall quote the words of these eminent
voyagers. “ In October 1809, in going from the
Sandwich Islands to New South AY ales, many Dol¬
phins, in troops, were performing their rapid evolu¬
tions about our vessel. Every one on board was
THE RHINOCEROS WHALE.
203
264
THE RHINOCEROS WHALE.
surprised to perceive that they had a fin on their
head bent backwards, the same as that on their
backs. The size of this animal was about double
that of the common Porpoise ; and the upper part
of its body to the dorsal fin was spotted black and
white.
“ We did our best to examine them, all the time
they accompanied us ; but although they often passed
the prow of the vessel, with the highest part of
their back out of the water, yet their heads were so
submerged, that neither M. Arago nor we could
discover whether their snout was long or short; and
their habits could not assist us on this point, because
they never sprang above the wave, as is common
with other species. From their very singular con¬
formation, we have assigned them their name—Rhi¬
noceros.”
FINIS.
EDINBURGH :
PRINTED BY W. H. LI2ARS.
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