i60 NATURAL HISTORY [Fishes. 



Breakness, and another in Breabuster in Hoy ; the greatest 

 numbers were wont to set into the harbour of Stromness and 

 elsewhere, and were killed or run ashore by the country people. 

 A good deal of oil was made of the fat, but I did not hear 

 of any whalebone, and suppose, from the size of the fish, it 

 would be of little value. 



I should imagine these whales to be migratory, as they ap- 

 pear in some seasons in vast numbers in these seas, and great 

 numbers are caught ; then, for many years, withdraw them- 

 selves altogether, so that scarce one is observed. Where 

 they go 1 am unacquainted, but incline to think they make 

 us no regular visits, like the porpoise, and others of these 

 fishes. 



GENUS II.— CACHALOT, OR SPERMACETI 



WHALES. 



Gen. Char. — Cetaceous fish, with teeth in the lower jaw only. 

 Species 1. — The Great-headed Cachalot. 



Balsena major in inferiore tantum maxilla dentata, dentibus arcuatis falciformibus, 

 pinnam sive spinam in dorso habens, Sib. Phal. 3S. Raii Syn. Pise. 15. 

 Phjseter microps, Lin.Syst, 107. Brit. Zool. 46. Ore. Spermaceti Whale. 



This kind of V/halc h often drove ashore about the Ork- 



