( 2^9 ) 



newly taken out of the head, I doubt not, that our enquiries might be 

 profeculed much farther, and that, confequently, greater fatisfaftion 

 miglitbe procured in the inveftigation. 



If we con fider the propagation of the Whale, by comparifon with 

 that of the fmaller fifli, we fliall be led to admire tlie wife difpofition 

 of Nature in this refpe(51:. To initance in the common Ihrimp ; every 

 one of them may be denominated a female, for they all, without 

 exception, propagate their fpecies by eggs ; and that, in fuch 

 numbers, that once, when I began to count the eggs on one 

 jhrimp, I liad not got halfway through the mafs of tliem, before I 

 was tired, and gave up the attempt. Such a vaft number of eggs, 

 produced by one fmall fifli is wonderful, efpecially if we confider, 

 that every one of thefe minute eggs is nourifiied by a blood vefld. 

 Now the larger fifli, which devour the fmaller, fuch as the Whale, 

 the porpoife, and the iword fifli, are not propagated by eggs, but 

 bring forth their young perfe61:ly formed ; for if thefe kind of fifli 

 increafed fo abundantly as the others, the fmaller fifli would every 

 one be devoured by them.. The Whale in particular, brings forth 

 only a fingle young one at a tisne, and is jjrovided with two breafls 

 filled with milk, and fuckles the young, after the manner of terref- 

 trial animals. 



I have Ibmetimes, when reflefting on the enormous bulk of tliofe 

 Whales which were taken at the beginning of the Whale filhery, and 

 on thofe huge bones of Whales, which are in many places fixed up 

 for public view ; I have, I fay, on thefe occafions, conje6tured, that 

 probably thofe Whales might be of the age of a thoufimd years and 

 upwards. . For I am perfuaded, that fiflies never die of old age, for- 

 afmuch as their bones, being always of a foft texture, which never 

 grows hard, may always be extended, fo that the fifli themfelves 

 are always growing larger. But, terrefirial animals are expoied to 

 the changes of the atmofphere, whereby their bones grow hard, and 



