35 



London whale : consequently that it is not the Catodon macro- 

 cephalusoi Gray, that is, the common sperm whale of the Euro- 

 pean seas. Whether it be the same species as the Physeter 

 Australis of Desmoulins — an apocryphal species, founded, as 

 we have seen, on a sketch made by the master of an English 

 whaler — may admit of doubt ; since no description, properly 

 so called, as yet exists of this last named species. I am inclined, 

 indeed, to believe that more than one species of sperm whale 

 will hereafter be shown to live in these Southern Seas. Still, 

 as the epithet " Australis" is as applicable to our specimen as 

 to any other of the genus, it has been judged proper to name 

 it Catodon Australis, and I trust sufficient characters have 

 been assigned by which this species may hereafter be 

 distinguished from all others. 



The skeleton set up appears to excite considerable interest 

 among the curious of Sydney; and it is to be hoped that the 

 foregoing observations will not merely serve to explain the 

 osseous framework of a sperm whale, but also show the 

 visitors of our Museum that the inspection of these dry bones 

 ought to suggest to them reflections far more instructive than 

 the vulgar admiration of their prodigious size. According to 

 Beale, specimens are to be seen in the Pacific more than three 

 times the size of this individual ; and nevertheless, Madame 

 de Stael's observation ought ever to be borne in mind : ^' Le 

 plus foible atome est un monde et le monde peutetre n^est qu^un 

 atomey Thus, the practised observer of nature knows that 

 the smallest organisation may offer as complex a subject for 

 curious study as the largest ; and that an interest may attach 

 itself to the sperm whale quite distinct from that due to its 

 enormous dimensions, or even to its great use in human 

 economy. We may, for instance, without being very profound 

 naturalists, admire its truly mammal structure, disguised 

 under the mask of a fish ; its want of that symmetry which is 

 so general in other vertebrated animals ; its cup-like receptacle 

 for the spermaceti which is to obviate in the ocean the 

 enormous weight of such a mass of skull ; its vertebrae locked 

 into each other in two diflferent ways, both however adapted 



