NATURAL HISTORY. 



90 



Ambergris, so long a riddle to all inquirers, is now found to 

 be produced in the interior of the Cachalot. This substance is 

 of the consistency of wax, inflammable, and gives out a kind 

 of musky odour. It was once in great repute as a medicine, 

 but is now only used as a perfume. 



The Cachalot, although an inhabitant of the arctic seas, has 

 sometimes been found and captured off our coasts. The length 

 of this whale is about seventy feet. 



JAW OF GREENLAND V. KALE. 



Family II. Delphinidae. (Gr. AfP.<^f, a Dolphin. Dolphin kind.) 

 DELPIIINUS. (Lat. a Dolphin.) 



-. .- - 



Delphis, the Dolphin. 



Those readers who have formed their ideas of Dolphins 

 from the very graceful and elegant creatures represented 

 under that name in the pictures of the " old masters" or the 

 statues of the ancient sculptors, will find that the real animal 

 differs as much from the ideal, as the red and green lions 

 wearing golden collars, represented in heraldry, differ from the 

 lion of Africa. Sad to say, almost the whole history of the 

 Dolphin is imaginary very poetical, but very untrue. The 



