108 ARCTIC ZOOLOGY. 



every one who makes this branch of natural history a study. 

 The energy of mind, precision, and copious brevity of 

 that inimitable master, have done wonders for the advance- 

 ment of science ; and like Bacon, he has added more to the 

 mass of useful knowledge than all the cloud of dogmatists 

 and logicians that for centuries has overshadowed the 

 human mind. 



In animals of the cetaceous order, however, the usual 

 arrangement by the teeth,, was in the Linneean system 

 necessarily abandoned, the distinctions, as insisted on by 

 that great author, being inadequate to generic character ; 

 in place of which the following is given. 



Ordei! VII. Cete. — Spiracles situate in the crown, feet 

 none, pectoral tins without nails, tail horizontal. 



This description is liable to some objection, though, in 

 general, sufl^iciently accurate to distinguish smimals of this 

 order from every other. They are all inhabitants of the 

 sea ; and all have a peculiar organization of body, by 

 which they are an intermediate link between quadrupeds and 

 fishes. Their bony frame-work is nearly similar in com- 

 position to that of the former, and it exhibits almost the 

 same appearances when dry. The necessity of inhaling 

 atmospheric air, with its effects on their blood, is also 

 another point of comparison in which they closely ap- 

 proximate, whilst they bear resemblance to fishes in their 

 long, tapering figure, calculated to make a speedy passage 



