30 A BOOK OF' WHALES 



the Hippopotamus already referred to. It is con- 

 ceivable, therefore, that we have in the whales an 

 exaggeration (of an Ungulate tendency), and there 

 are some who would derive the whales from an 

 Ungulate ancestry, as will be pointed out in more 

 detail in a future chapter. 



There is yet another possible explanation of the 

 hairless condition of the whale tribe. Whales are 

 at present smooth-skinned animals ; a few exceptions 

 will be dealt with on another page (p. 31). But 

 there is evidence, which will be gone into on the 



o 



page quoted, that the ancestors of whales had dermal 

 scutes, forming an armature comparable to that of 

 such a creature as the Armadillo. Now in that animal 

 the hairs have become reduced ; they have been re- 

 placed by the "scales," and there is no room for 

 them except between the scutes. If the view be 

 correct that the ancestral whales were creatures 

 clothed with scutes, it is easy to see how the nude 

 condition of the modern whales has been arrived at, 

 for the original hairy covering would have been 

 destroyed by the appearance of the scutes, and when 

 these latter disappeared the hair would not reappear 

 at any rate, that is a legitimate assumption. 



It must not, therefore, be assumed off-hand that 

 the absence of hairy covering in whales is a simple 

 question of their aquatic life. 



