1. CATODON. 205 



See Dauphm de Berlin, Duham. Puchcs, ii. 1041. t. 10. f. 5, and 

 Deljili. Bert'mi, Desm. Mamm. 510, 768 ; Fischer, Syn. 509. Is it a 

 young Fhi/seter ? — Fischer, 



M. H. de Blaimille, in his ' Systeme du Rcgne Animal,' ex- 

 tracted in the ' Annalcs Fr. et Etr. d' Anatomic et de Physiologic,' 

 ii. p. 235, states that the jaws with teeth in the Paris Museum seem 

 to show two or three distinct forms. The first, a head, stranded at 

 Audierne, on the coast of Brittany, in 1784, has the lower line of 

 the lower jaw in the form of a hoat. Teeth 25 on each side ; 18 to 

 the symphysis. In two other jaws of this variety, one has 20 and 

 the other 27 teeth. 



The second form has the lower jaw much less curved, nearly 

 straight, the sjniiphysis reaching to the twentieth tooth. Teeth all 

 long, straight. It was obtained at Cape Horn by M. Daubre, and is 

 figured in Cuv. Oss. Foss. v. 340. t. 24. f. 8. There is a second jaw 

 of this variety figured in Cuv. Oss. Foss. v. t. 24. f. 9 (?). 



The third form is a jaw intermediate between the two former. 

 The symphysis ends between the twentieth and twenty-first teeth. 

 The teeth are 25 on each side. 



Camper (Cetac. t. 17, 20-22, from the church of Scherclinge, 1. 18, 

 19, 27, Mus. Paris) figured the skuU of this whale. He represents 

 the nose of the skull as nearly twice and a half as long as the width 

 at the notch. 



" Sperm "WTiales were frequently hunted off the shores of the 

 Antilles. Moreau de St.-Meri, in his ' History and Description of 

 the old French Colony of St. Domingo,' relates that in his time 

 (1785, in the months of March, April, and May) as many as twenty- 

 five vessels from the North American States could be seen off the 

 coast of Sale Trou, near Jacmel, fishing for the Cachalot WJiale, 

 and, he adds, for SouJJleurs {Balcenoptera), and that this fishery was 

 pursued with equal spirit and success within the gulf to the west of 

 the colony, that is, within the Bight in which I saw the Cachalot 

 beach. The whalefishers resorted to Turk Island to boil their oil." 

 — Gosse, Nat. in Jamaica, 353. 



Dr. J. B. S. Jackson gives the dissection of a very young Sperm 

 Whale taken near Boston, U. S., on 29th March 1842, which was 

 16 feet long ; the hump, which was 9 feet from the tip of the nose, 

 formed a very obtuse angle, and was ill defined, there being also be- 

 tween it and the caudal two or three quite small finlets. The outer 

 surface was everj^where quite black, remarkably smooth, and elastic 

 like India rubber. — Boston Journ. Nat. Hist. 1845, v. 138. t. 16. 

 f. 1 (the stomach). 



The blowholes are situated on the top of the head, at the vciy 

 extremity, and rather towards the left side ; they are of the form of 

 an italic/, as observed by Anderson, Beale, and Jackson. F. Cuvier 

 says they are semicircular (p. 288), and they are longitudinal, and 

 not transverse as stated by Hunter. 



Roof of the mouth smooth, high-coloured, hoUowed as if to receive 

 the lower jaw, which is quite narrow in front. — Jackson, 1. c. 140; 

 Wyman, I. c. t. 14 (stomach). 



