200 Scientific Reviews. 



The works of Rondelet, Belon, Conrad Gesner, Aldrovand, 

 Jonston, followed each other in the train of error, containing 

 a repetition of the same old superstitious tales under the title 

 of the Natural History of the Cetacea. After them there wa». 

 an interval during which many voyages were undertaken ; and 

 much light was thereby thrown upon the history of these ani- 

 mals, especially by the writings of Eggede, Ellis and Ander- 

 son, whose Natural History of Greenland, &c,, (1750) is yet, 

 with a very few exceptions, the only original source whence we 

 may derive detailed information on this subject. From the time 

 of Anderson to the present date, the history of the cetacea. 

 received many valuable accessions from the labours of Forskal, 

 Hasselquist, Klein, Illiger, Olafsen, Peron, Duhamel, Shaw, 

 Risso, &c., but its progress was far behind the other branches of 

 the science. The treatises of Bonaterre and Lacepede, the most 

 complete which we possess, leave much to be desired, and are by no 

 means free from error. Thus, at the present day, though innu- 

 merable new animals had been discovered, we were not in posses- 

 sion of a single work whereto we could refer for information on. 

 this class of beings. Nevertheless, the invaluable work of Scoresby,, 

 the " Zoology" of Shaw, the " Mammal(^ie" of Desmarest, and 

 especially the " Regne Animal" of Cuvier, as well as his " Osse- 

 mens Fossiles," contained a scattered mass of new and interesting, 

 facts which only required the labour of judicious compilation. 



It might, therefore, be expected that a work on this interesting 

 subject would be received with eagerness, and perused with atten- 

 tion. That which our author presents is in all respects worthy of 

 praise. In an introductory essay he enters into the peculiarities 

 of organization, and the habits of the great order of cetaceous mam- 

 mifera, and before proceeding to his own descriptions, gives a brief 

 account of the species in the seas of Kamtschatka, published by 

 Chamisso, from figures drawn on wood by the Aleutians ; and of 

 others described by Lacepede, from figures painted in China and 

 Japan. 



The Herbivorous Cetacea form the first group, and the Piscivo- 

 rous the second. The Lamantins, of which the American, the 

 broad-beaked, and the Senegal species are described, form the first 

 genus of the former, then comes the Dugong of the Indies, and 

 lastly, the Stellerus borealis. 



Of the Piscivorous Cetacea, the species described are the Nar- 

 whal ; the Greenland Anarnak, MoTiodon spurius ; two species of 

 Diodon ; a Hyperoodon ; three Xiphii ; one Aodon ; twenty-se- 

 ven Dolphins ; one Cachalot ; the Bakenoptera borealis, B. Ror- 

 qual, B. acuto-rostrata, and B. australis ; and two species of Ba- 

 laenae, the southern and the northern. The history of the common 

 whale and spermaceti whale is given in detail, as is that of several 

 others of the new and rarer species. Twenty-two coloured figures 

 are added, engraved in the simple style which is best adapted to the 

 form of animals presenting so little complicated an external organi- 

 zation as the cetacea. 



