38 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



it is smooth. The cuticle, or that external part of the 

 skin which can be pulled off in sheets after it has been 

 dried a little in the air, or particularly in the frost, is not 

 thicker than parchment. The skin is very strong, 

 although penetrated by a multitude of pores. In certain 

 species it is more than eight inches thick. 



The epidermis is very smooth, porous, and composed 

 of several layers. It shines, because it is penetrated 

 with a species of oil, which in the rays of the sun give it 

 the appearance of polished metal. This oil, besides 

 diminishing the rigidity of the skin, preserves it from 

 those injurious changes it might otherwise experience 

 by the alternate sojourn of the animal below the surface 

 of the water. 



The mucous tissue, or rete mucosum, which separates 

 the epidermis from the true skin, is thicker than in the 

 other mammiferee. Its colour, which is communicated 

 to the epidermis, varies much, not only in the different 

 species, but likewise in individuals of the same kind, by 

 reason of age, sex, and probably by the temperature of 

 the usual habitat. Baron Cuvier states that almost all 

 the whales of Spitzbergen are entirely white. Some 

 cetacea are marked irregularly with white upon a grey 

 or black ground, but this appears to be the result of 

 wounds, which have cicatrized. The flesh below the 

 epidermis and skin is a dark red, very coarse, hard, and 

 dry, by no means agreeable to taste, and impregnated 

 with an unpleasant odour. Between the flesh and skin 

 is sometimes a coat of fat, more than a foot in thickness 

 on the head and neck. A part of this fat is so liquid 

 that it often forms an oil without the necessity of having 

 recourse to the process of expression, or the application 

 of heat. 



