upon so slight a foundation. This singular animal is confined to the arctic regions of America, inhabiting the barren lands lying to the northwards of the 60th parallel of latitude, but sometimes appearing a few degree lower; westwards, it occurs as low as 57°.

Dr. Richardson says, that the " districts inhabited by the Musk Ox are the proper lands of the Esquimaux; and neither the northern Indians nor the Crees have an original name for it, both terming it bison, with an additional epithet. The country frequented by the Musk Ox is mostly rocky and destitute of wood, except on the banks of the larger rivers, which are generally more or less thickly clothed with spruce-trees. Their food is similar to that of the caribou, (reindeer,) grass at one season, lichens at another."

The Musk Ox is generally found in small herds of twenty or thirty head, which are harassed by the hunters as often as they approach the habitations of man; yet the chase is not without danger, as the males are apt, when irritated and wounded, to turn with vindictive fury upon the hunter. The flesh of the animal when fat is tolerably good; but when lean, as it is at certain seasons, is not only coarse, but is both scented and flavoured strongly with musk, whence the animal's distinguishing title. The senses of sight, smell, and hearing, are very acute; and it is difficult for the hunter to approach a herd without discovery.

In size, the Musk Ox is small, the carcass, exclusive of the offal, weighing about three hundred weight; the limbs are short and stout; the hoofs being somewhat narrower, but not longer, than those of the caribou, so that it requires an experienced hunter to know the difference of the impressions they leave in the soil or the snow. It runs with great swiftness, and climbs rocky paths, and the abrupt sides of the hills, with great agility. "One, pursued on the banks of the Coppermine, scaled a lofty sand cliff having so great a declivity, that we were obliged to crawl on hands and knees to follow it." Like the bison, the Musk Ox is clothed with long shaggy hair, curled and matted on the neck and shoulders, but lying more smoothly on the hips and hinder quarters, though still of extraordinary length and very fine. The general colour is brown, except a saddle-like mark in the centre of the back, of a dirty grey. Beneath the hair, there is a large quantity of brown or ash-coloured wool, forming an admirable under-coat; the tail is short, and concealed among the hair. The head is large and square, with a convex forehead; the horns are very thick and broad at their origin, where they rise in contact with each other from a flattened base; as they proceed they become rounder and tapering, sweeping downwards between the eyes and ears till they reach the angle of the mouth, when they abruptly turn upwards, ending in a sharp point about the level of the eyes. The nostrils are oblong slits in close approximation at their lowest points, and gradually diverging outwards. The eyes are moderately large; the ears short, and not very conspicuous. There is a beautiful specimen of this singular animal in the British Museum.

We have thus concluded the present genus,

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and with it the great order Ruminantia; an order characterized by features too simple and true to be ever mistaken. We have found the different genera composing it to be such as include the useful, the graceful, and the interesting-the camel, the reindeer, the antelope, and the cattle of our farms. We have often, in our examination of it, had occasion to admire the wisdom and the goodness of God; and in looking back upon it, as we take our leave, may we not say, "How excellent are thy works! in wisdom thou hast made them all ?"

ORDER IX.-CETACEA.

Body constructed for inhabiting the water: limbs consisting of an anterior pair only, forming paddles or oars; teeth variable-in some cases there are only horny laminæ instead.

WE have hitherto been contemplating races of mammalia furnished with four extremities, adapting them to traverse the earth, to roam the woods, the vales, and the mountains, which diversify the solid surface of our planet. Some few, it is true, as the seal and walrus, have had the limbs formed expressly for swimming, and for habits more or less aquatic; but even here, it will be remembered that the limbs were four, and that the water was by no means their constant abode; they came on shore to bask in the sun, climbed rocks or masses of ice, upon which they would repose for days, or sport and gambol; and that they entered deep caves or fissures of the cliffs along the coast for the purpose of bringing forth and rearing their young, swimming out to sea only for the sake of food. We have also seen that in every order the head was separated from the body by a distinct neck, and the skin more or less covered with hair or fur. But we are now about to contemplate a race of mammalia possessing very different characters; a race adapted exclusively for the ocean, where they roll and plunge and sport among the waves, or seek the deep sea-caves, or wander among coral groves of stately and luxuriant growth. If we look at these monsters of the deep, we find the whole of their organization modified so as to fit them for their "ocean-home." The first modification of parts is in the limbs. We have traced the changes of the hand from man to the solidungulous animal; we have marked the opposable thumb, so perfect in the human hand, beginning to shorten in the quadrumana; in some of which indeed it dwindled to a mere rudiment; after this we saw it lose its character as a, thumb altogether, remaining as a claw in the carnivora and the rodentia, in some of the orders of which it was lost. In the sloth, and also in the other edentata, we found a diminution in the number of the fingers; these fingers, which remained, having lost their flexibility. In the pachydermata and in the ruminating animals, we could no longer recognize fingers at all, and the limbs were accordingly modified, losing the last faint relics of the power of rotation, and becoming simple props or pillars for the body. In all these changes, in every grade of difference, we saw a reference to habits and modes of life: the

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[СЕТАСЕЛ.

thus formed should be disposed in that organ in the same relative position as in the body from whence they emanated. For the accomplishment of this purpose, the humours of the eye are so ad

Here we find the posterior extremities lost, and the anterior limbs degenerated into the form of fins or paddles, without distinct fingers, and only adapted to propel the body through the water. If we dissect for the bones of these paddles, we find them short and flattened, yet distinct and hand-like; but the whole of this osseous framework is enveloped in a cartilaginous covering, so as to form an undivided oar. The contour of the body is fishlike, no neck being distinguishable, and the whole tapering down gradually from the head to the tail; the tail, however, (a cartilaginous structure,) though like that of a fish in figure, is placed not vertically, but horizontally, and moved upwards and downwards by muscles of enormous force and volume. This position of the tail is indispensable to the animals of this order, as it enables them, by means of a few powerful strokes, to rise or dive with the utmost rapidity and be it remembered that these are animals that breathe the air with true lungs; that suckle their young, and rear them with tender solicitude; animals with a double heart, and whose blood is red and warm; animals, in short, that differ in nothing, as it respects organic conformation, from the rest of the mammalia, except in the nature of their appointed habitation: hence, deep as the whale may plunge, in a few minutes he must rise, and rise rapidly, to breathe.

:

The skin is naked, and between it and the muscles there is a layer of adipose substance or blubber, varying in its depth in different species: in the whale it is ten or twelve feet. The use of the blubber is two-fold: by its elasticity it defends the internal organs against the pressure of the surrounding water at immense depths; but its principal use is to preserve the vital heat of the body in a cold medium, which has a perpetual tendency to abstract caloric. Were it not for this layer of blubber, one of the worst conductors of heat, the whale would perish from cold, his gigantic carcass would stiffen in the polar sea, for his vital energies unaided would be unable to resist the effects of so low a degree of temperature. Land mammalia of the north have thick furry vestments to protect the body; but fur, long and thick, would not do for the whale; it would be useless, it would become saturated. God, therefore, has given him an equivalent in an envelope of blubber around him. We may also add, as another of its uses, that it increases the specific lightness of the body, rendering it more buoyant in the water.

The eyes of the Cetacea are expressly formed for the dense medium the animals inhabit. "No object," says Dr. Fleming, "is visible to the eye unless the angle formed by its extreme points exceeds thirty-four seconds of a degree. In order to render the impression distinct, it is necessary that all the rays which proceed from any one point of a body should be collected in one point of the retina, and that all the points of union

as to prevent any dispersion or decomposition of the rays. Thus they act in a similar manner to the compound object-glasses of an achromatic telescope.

"As animals reside in different media, it is obvious that the eyes of each must possess different refractive powers. In the land animals, the cornea is usually convex, and the aqueous humour abundant; while in aquatic animals the former is flat, and the latter in small quantity. In land animals, the aqueous humour possesses great power of refracting rays, passing to it through air, aided likewise by the convexity of its surface; but its refractive power in water would be comparatively weak. This defect, however, is supplied by the spherical form and great refractive power of the lens, as may be seen in whales, diving birds, and fishes."

In the Cetacea we find no external ears; there are, however, small orifices, which transmit sound to the internal organ.

The present organ is divided into two families, or sections: 1. The Herbivorous cetacea, which feed on submarine plants; 2. The True cetacea of Cuvier, the Piscivorous cetacea of other authors, feeding upon fishes, moluscous animals, zoophytes, and the like.

1. The Herbivorous cetacea.

In this section we find teeth with a flattened surface, in accordance with the nature of the food; the head is rounded, there are strong moustaches on the lips, and the mammæ are pectoral; circumstances which, when the body is raised up in the water, produce something like a resemblance to the human figure, and have given rise to the fabulous narratives of travellers respecting "the mermaid."

As in most true herbivorous animals, the stomach is complicated, being divided into four cavities. The nostrils open at the muzzle.

Our first genus is Manatus, or that of the LAMANTINE. The body is oblong, the tail, or rather caudal paddle, oval and elongated; the grinders are eight on each side above and below: incisors and canine teeth are wanting. We find rudiments of nails on the edges of the anterior paddles or flippers, which are perhaps of use in enabling the animals to drag their body along among weeds and marine vegetables, as well as to carry their young.

Of the Lamantine three or four different species are recognized. They are natives respectively of the seas which wash the shores of South America, and those of Western Africa, habitually frequenting the wide mouths of the larger rivers at their entrance into the ocean.

The next genus we shall notice is one closely allied to the preceding, namely, Halicore, ILL. and including but one species, the DUGONG of the Indian Seas, (Halicore dugong.) The grinders are three on each side above and below, each being composed of two cones united together at the sides; there are two incisors above, just

appearing through the gum, but possessing roots of enormous length, enclosed in a hollow cavity in each of the intermaxillary bones; these bones are brought forward in a singular manner, so as to throw the mouth below; the body is round and tapering; the tail crescent-shaped. The Dugong is a native of the seas of India, of the adjacent islands, and of the northern line of Australia. In clear still water, it may be seen browsing on the fuci and submarine vegetables at a great depth; for this mode of feeding its mouth is expressly placed: there is no neck which it can bend down like the ox or the horse. If therefore its mouth were situated as it is in such animals, the Dugong could not apply it to the green turf of the meadows beneath the waste of waters, without elevating the hinder parts of the body perpendicularly, a position in every respect unsuitable; the mouth is therefore placed beneath the head, so that in the natural position of the body the animal may browse at ease. The flesh of the Dugong is much esteemed as food, being delicate and tender, and not unlike beef. The length of this animal is from six to seven feet. There is a fine specimen in the Museum of the Zoological. Society, London, from the coast of Sumatra.

We shall now pass to the True cetacea, a section containing several genera, and exhibiting the following common characters. Their food is animal matter, such as fishes and molusca; the skin is smooth; and on the back there is in many species a vertical cartilaginous fin, unconnected with the skeleton. The nostrils, or blow-holes, are situated on the top of the head, which is the most elevated part of the body, so as to be always above the surface of the water when the animals are floating. These nostrils are small openings into a tubercular elongation or sack of the nares, provided with a muscular apparatus, for the purpose of compressing it with vehemence; hence it is that the small apertures of this sack are called blow-holes, because when the animals come to the surface to respire they produce by the forcible expulsion of the air a hissing noise, heard in the whale at a great distance; and a column of vapour arises often to a considerable height. It also sometimes happens, that long before reaching the surface, the animal breathes out the air pent up in the lungs with considerable violence, throwing up the spray in arched jets d'eau; and this is most usually the case if the animal has been chased, or is alarmed; for then, though forced to come to the surface to breathe, it has not time to breathe leisurely, and begins, while yet beneath the water, to empty the lungs for a fresh inspiration. Cuvier says, that in swallowing their prey they engulf large volumes of water, which, in order to get rid of, they violently force through the nostrils by the compression of powerful muscles. This, however, is not the opinion of Captain Scoresby, whose opportunities of correct information have enabled him to rectify many errors, and add much information to our knowledge of this race.

The larynx, or windpipe, opens into the back of the nostrils in the form of a pyramid. The glottis is simple, so that the voice whenever exerted consists in a bellowing sound only. The

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sight is quick beneath the water; as is the hearing also. It has been doubted if the sense of smell existed in any degree of perfection: it would appear, however, that these animals are sensible of the noxious smell of bilge-water, pumped from the hold of vessels, as has been tried in one or two recorded instances. The stomach is complicated, having many subdivisions. The cervical vertebræ are thin, often more or less anchylosed together, and sometimes only five in number. The head is large, in many exceeding the rest of the body.

Of the many genera embraced by this section, we first select that of the Dolphins, (Delphinus, LINN.) The land has its tyrants, cruel and voracious, and, though not the largest, the most formidable of terrestrial mammalia. The sea also has its tyrants among the mammalia, which roam its depths; fierce and sanguinary, they are the carnassiers of the waters, preying upon the finny tribes, which they chase in all directions; and their teeth are modified accordingly. Such are the Dolphins and the Porpoises.

The genus Delphinus is characterized by teeth, simple, conical, and numerous; the forehead is rounded, and the muzzle projects from the head so as to form a sort of beak, or slender snout, well armed with weapons.

Of this genus, our example is the celebrated DOLPHIN, (Delphinus delphis, LINN.,) which figures in so many fables, and has gained more credit from poetry than it deserves; not that it is devoid of intelligence, but its habits are wolfish. In collected troops it hunts down its prey, cleaving the waters with astonishing velocity, and driving the flying fishes from their element to take temporary refuge in the air, but still keeping up the chase till the exhausted victims are secured. The Dolphin is met with in all the warmer seas; its length is from eight to ten feet. Its manners were well known to the ancients, and it is accurately figured on many of their coins. Its habits of gamboling and sporting in the deep are described by Ovid with admirable fidelity :

"Undique dant saltus, multâque adspergine rorant

Emerguntque iterùm, redeuntque sub æquora rursùs ; Inque chori ludunt speciem, lascivaque jactant Corpora, et acceptum patulis mare naribus efflant." "On every side above the waves they spring, And showers of spray in gamesome frolic fling; Again they rise in light, again they sweep Beneath the briny waters of the deep, And joining bands, as if in mimic play, The winding measures of the dance essay, And toss their sportive forms, and snort and blow, And streams of brine through widened nostrils throw." MSS.

The PORPOISES, (Phocæna, CUVIER,) differ from the dolphins only in having a shorter muzzle equally elevated with the forehead.

The COMMON PORPOISE (Phocæna communis) is a native of our coasts, as well as of those of continental Europe: it is the smallest of the Cetacea, seldom attaining more than four or five feet in length. It abounds in the mouths of rivers in shoals, where it may be seen to rise every few moments to the surface, and plunge

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down again instantaneously with a rolling motion, occasioned by the up-and-down strokes of the tail.

We find the Porpoise among the luxuries of the table even so late as the last century; but its flesh is oily and disagreeable. When shoals of herrings or mackerel visit our shores, the Porpoise revels in a perpetual feast, and may be seen pursuing its prey with great assiduity. It has been known to travel far up the course of our rivers.

Our next genus is Monodon, which contains the NARWAL, a native of the polar seas. In this animal we find no true teeth, but two tusks, analogous to those of the elephant, implanted in the intermaxillary bones. Of these tusks the left is enormously developed, projecting straight forwards with the line of the body, being spirally twisted, and tapering to a point. Its length is from six to eight or ten feet; the tusk on the right side is imperfectly developed, seldom advancing far out of the socket, and sometimes not appearing beyond it. Should its fellow, however, be broken off, it then begins to increase, though it never equals the lost one. According to general account, the Narwal is about double or triple the length of its tusk; the skin is marbled with brown and white: the mouth is small. The velocity of this animal, and the impetus with which it cleaves the waters, may be conceived from the fact of its having been known, in more instances than one, to plunge its tusk through the sides of a vessel, in the timbers of which the portion driven in has been snapped off by the violence of the blow.

The Narwal is said to attack the huge whale, into whose sides he drives his formidable weapon, and greedily takes in the oily blubber which oozes from each wound inflicted. It is also said to live upon dead animal matter in general. The word Narwal, or Narwale, is derived from the Gothic nar, or Icelandic ner, signifying a beak or snout; wal, or wale, being synonymous with our word whale, and derived from the same Teutonic root.

We now arrive at a group of the Cetacea having the head so enormously large as to constitute a third, or even half, of the total length of the body. This increased magnitude of the head has however nothing to do with the development of the brain, but is simply produced by the extension of the bones of the face. This group comprehends those gigantic monsters of the deep, the hugest of all living beings, expressly known by the name of Whales.

We shall first notice the genus Physeter; it includes the Cachalots, or Spermaceti Whales, creatures of enormous bulk and tiger-like voracity, pursuing their prey, consisting of seals and large fishes, with "a bitterness and pertinacity that has scarcely any parallel in animated nature." The head is of prodigious volume; the upper jaw is destitute of teeth, and also of the plates called whalebone, (which, as we shall see, are a marked character in other genera;) but the lower jaw, which is straight and elongated, and of enormous weight and solidity, fits into a groove

[CETACEA.

in the upper, and is armed with a range of short cylindrical or conical teeth on each side, received into corresponding cavities in the upper jaw, of which the gum is as hard and callous as cartilage. The superior portion of the skull consists of a series of large cavities, filled with a clear transparent oleaginous fluid, which hardens on cooling. In this concrete state it is known under the name of spermaceti, but more properly adipocire. From the skull, a chain of membranous sacs extends through various parts of the body, filled with a similar fluid; they even ramify among the ordinary blubber beneath the skin. There is no dorsal fin, its place being supplied by a callous ridge, terminating abruptly. The eye is placed higher than in most of the large Cetacea; it is black, and that on the left side is smaller than the other; the fishermen always choose this side, if possible, on which to attack the animal, averring that the sight of this eye is also less distinct. The blow-hole is a single orifice, and directed towards the left side, terminating on the anterior part of the muzzle, which is truncate. The want of exact symmetry between the two sides of the skull, as indicated by the smallness of the left eye, and the inclination of the blow-hole to that side, appears to obtain throughout the Cetacea in general. It has been noticed by Cuvier; and Dr. Grant, in his "Outlines of Comparative Anatomy," observes respecting the Cetacea, "the right side of the head is generally more developed than the other, and the nostrils are inclined to the left side." It is not, therefore, without reason that the whalers regard the vision of the left eye of the Cachalot as imperfect. The orifice of the ear is scarcely to be found; it is situated in an excrescence of the skin between the eye and the ear.

The CACHALOT (Physeter macrocephalus, LACEP.) appears to be by no means so limited in its habitat as many of the giant race to which it belongs. It is not only on the northern seas that the Cachalot occurs; this animal visits the shores of southern Europe, and advances up the Mediterranean; it roams through the great Atlantic, and has been seen off the shores of southern Africa, and in the channel of Mozambique ; it occurs in troops in the southern ocean, and within the regions of the antarctic circle. According to Colnett, the neighbourhood of the Gallapagos constitutes a sort of rendezvous in spring for all the Cachalots frequenting the coasts of Mexico, Peru, and the gulf of Panama; and we have many instances on record of its having been captured on our British coasts. In 1769, a Cachalot was seen off the Kentish coast; in 1774, a very large one was stranded on the coast of Norfolk. Some few years since a small one was captured in the Thames, near Gravesend. In 1784, thirty-two Cachalots ran aground on the coast of Audierne, being stranded on the sands called Tres Conaren: the interesting details connected with which circumstance were published by Professor Bonnaterre in the Encyclopédie Méthodique. It appears that on the 13th of March, persons saw, with great surprise, vast shoals of fishes throw themselves on the shore, and a great number of porpoises enter the port of Audierne. On the 14th, at six in the morning, the sea was high, and the winds blew from the

CETACEA.]

south-east with violence. Towards Cape Estain were heard extraordinary bellowings, which resounded far along the land. Two men, who were coasting along the shore, were terror-struck, especially when they saw, a little out at sea, enormous animals plunging about with violence, straining to resist the foaming waves which carried them on towards the shore, making the surges roar with redoubled blows of their tails, and throwing through their nostrils columns of water with a loud, hissing noise. On, however, they were driven, struggling, with mighty but unavailing strength and fury, against the tide; and, to the consternation of the spectators, were stranded on the sand-bank, where they lay rolling and dashing about for twenty-four hours, until, at length, they perished. Many other similar instances are upon record.

The most remarkable instance, however, of the capture of this animal on our shores took place during the month of February, 1819, in Whitstable Bay. It appears that the Whale was observed in shallow water (on the 11th) off the Essex coast. "He was immediately attacked by two boats, the men in which, trying to kill or disable him, commenced by destroying his sight." They then stabbed him, and deeming him exhausted with the immense loss of blood, and his violent and agonized efforts, "attempted to secure him by two very strong cables, and with another fastened a small anchor to his tail. The cables were speedily snapped, and the leviathan broke from his pursuers, but only to meet a more certain fate on the opposite shore. The Whitstable men were more fortunate, the Whale becoming stranded upon their coast, and assisting to destroy himself by his tremendous efforts to escape into his native element from the incessant persecutions of his new enemies, who endeavoured to kill him by wounds in every accessible part of his body. The noise of his floundering upon the shingles was compared by our informant to that of all his bones being broken, which, added to his bellowing, was as terrible to the ear as the sight of so vast an animal exerting his utmost power for existence was to the eye." While yet on the Essex coast, he at one time became so much exhausted by beating about in shallow water, as to suffer the master of a French vessel to lash him to the stern by a cable round his tail, thus promising to become an easy prize. No sooner, however, was he towed tail foremost into deep water, than his strength became renovated: roused to exertion, he in turn pulled against the vessel, and proved the best swimmer, towing her stern forwards after him to a considerable distance. In the struggle, however, the cable broke, and, regaining his liberty, he stranded himself by Whitstable. His death was ultimately effected by a seaman acquainted with the whaling business, who thrust a spear in a proper direction, and ended his sufferings. The quantity of oil procured was nine tons, besides the spermaceti, which was also considerable. Much, however, of both had been previously lost, owing to the nature of the wounds, and the interval between the death of the animal and the fencing, as the process of cutting up the Whale is technically called.

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The heart measured three feet across, the aorta, or main artery, arising from the left ventricle of the heart, one foot three inches in diameter. The total length of the animal was sixty-three feet, and the circumference round the body thirty-six. The Cachalot, however, is said sometimes to reach the extraordinary length of a hundred feet. Its principal locality is the polar ocean of both hemispheres.

Our next genus is that of Balana; it includes the Common Whale of the polar seas, an animal destroyed by man for the sake of its oil, which is so well known as an article of commerce. The chase of it employs thousands of men; every artifice which daring ingenuity can contrive is resorted to, and hence, huge and powerful as the monster is, it wages an unequal war. Year by year its numbers are diminished, and in latitudes where it formerly abounded, it is now rarely to be met with.

In the cachalots we found the lower jaw furnished with conical teeth; we now lose them altogether. Let us see how their place is supplied. The upper jaw, having the form of a boat reversed, is furnished along the two sides with long, subtriangular, transverse laminæ, of a horny substance, called whalebone, or baleen, set in close array; these plates of baleen, to the number of three or four hundred on each side, with the broad end fixed to the gum, and the apex to the middle of the palate, have a fringed edge, loose and floating; they begin small, but increase to ten feet in length, and then diminish gradually. The lower jaw, unprovided with a similar apparatus, contains a thick fleshy tongue, and is arched outwards, so as to embrace these fringed plates, and, when the mouth is shut, thus produce a kind of strainer or hanging grove of whalebone filaments touching the floor, so as to detain the moluscous animals on which the monster feeds. These are of the smallest kind, for its organization; and indeed the diameter of the œsophagus will not permit the Whale to swallow bodies of any magnitude. For hundreds of miles the polar seas are covered with acalapha; these the Whale engulfs by millions, straining them from the water by means of the hanging fringes of the upper jaw.

The COMMON WHALE (Balana mysticetus, LINN.) equals the cachalot in magnitude. According to Captain Scoresby, it is now seldom found more than seventy feet in length; it attained, however, in former days, when less disturbed by man, and suffered to live to maturity, dimensions far more considerable. Its blubber is many feet in thickness, and yields from seventy to a hundred barrels of oil. Of the whalebone or baleen we need say little; its use in the arts and in domestic economy is known to all.

The velocity with which the Whale dashes through the water is very great, especially when alarmed or irritated; and the lashings of its ponderous tail work up the sea into boiling foam: "He maketh the deep to be hoary." When roused from his slumbers on the surface of the water, where he lies, "stretched like a promontory," by the pain of the harpoon, the first