THE ORDER CETACEA. i) 



It may be necessary for me to observe that, in my 

 descriptions of the oceanic inhabitants of the Arctic 

 Regions, I shall arrange them in conformity with the 

 classification of Linnaeus, Count La Cepede, Baron 

 Cuvier, Captain Scoresby, and Dr. Traill, in two parts : 

 first, describing the cetacea both in their zoological and 

 anatomical characters ; secondly, the fish tribes ; and 

 ultimately concluding with an account of the Crustacea, 

 medusa, asterice, and the minutest discoverable ani- 

 malculce. 



I therefore commence with calling the reader's at- 

 tention to the whale, the largest of any known animal 

 existing at the present day, and which is, to use the 

 language of the poet Milton, 



" That sea beast, 

 Leviathan, which God of all his works 

 Created hugest that swim the ocean stream." 



Paradise Lost, b. i. 138. 



