several species said to belong to them, as all referable to one 

 species, namely, the Physeter macrocephalus of Cuvier. But 

 Cuvier himself was in doubt whether the cachalot of the 

 Southern Pacific might not be specifically different from that 

 of the Northern Atlantic. He says that it is for naturalists to 

 judge whether the differences observed by him in the inferior 

 jaw of an Antarctic cachalot, and the under jaw of a sperm 

 whale cast ashore on the coast of France, result from a 

 mere distinction in age or sex, or from a specific difference. 

 And he says, further, that he does not imagine that 

 naturalists will be able to decide this question until 

 they shall have been in possession of a complete head 

 of the Antarctic cachalot, to compare with that of the 

 Northern Atlantic animal, or until they shall, at least, have 

 been in possession of good drawings of the external figures of 

 both these cetaceans. Mr. Gray, of the British Museum, 

 in No. XIII. of the Zoology of the Antarctic Voyage of the 

 Erebus and Terror, which was made under the command 

 of Sir J. C. Ross, — a work that has more reference to the 

 external appearance, than to the anatomy of whales — also says, 

 in 1846, "I have no doubt, from the analogy of other whales, 

 that when we shall have had the opportunity of accurately 

 comparing the bones, and the various proportions of the parts 

 of the northern and southern kinds of sperm, we shall find 

 them distinct. Quoy gives an engraving of a drawing of a 

 sperm whale which was given him by an English captain, 

 and which is probably the southern whale. He calls it 

 Physeter 2^olycyphus, because its back appears to be broken 

 into a series of humps, and Desmoulins re-names it Physeter 

 AustraUsJ' Mr. Gray, moreover,, makes a family of *"' the 

 toothed whales," under the name of Catodo?itidcs, and to this 

 family he assigns three genera, viz., Catodon, Kogia, and 

 Physeter — their types being, respectively, the Catodon macro- 

 cephalus, or sperm whale of the Northern Atlantic ; the 

 Kogia breviceps, or short-headed sperm whale of the Cape of 

 Good Hope; and the Physeter Tursio, or Black -fish of the 

 North Sea. Now the larger skeleton lately set up by me in the 



