448 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



appeared from the press, has, I conceive, made some 

 judicious changes in the Linnean arrangement, 

 though the advantage of all his alterations is not 

 very apparent. The separation of the whales ha- 

 ving the dorsal fin, from those without it, is cer- 

 tainly judicious, the difference being marked and 

 characteristic. All whales, for instance, with horny 

 laminae in place of teeth, having no dorsal fin, are, 

 agreeably to the arrangement of Linne, included 

 under the generic name l^alcena ; but those posses- 

 sing the dorsal fin, are, by La Cepede, called JBalw- 

 noptcrce, signifying whales with a fin. 



In a somewhat similar way, animals of the genus 

 Delphinus of Linne, having no dorsal fin, are sepa- 

 rated from those which possess this characteristic, 

 and are distinguished by the name of Delphinapteri, 

 or Dolphins without the fin. In these two particu- 

 lars I have followed La Cepede *. 



• Though La Cepede's work is evidently the result of much 

 research, and the production of an enlarged mind, yet it is by 

 no means accurate. In several of his departures from the Lin- 

 nean arrangement, the author has fallen into great mistakes. 

 The Balaena Mysticetus and the Balaena Nordcaper, for in- 

 stance, are considered by Linne as varieties only of the same 

 animal. La Capede makes them two species. Now, La Ce- 

 pede's figure of the Baleine franche (Mysticetus), has not its- 

 counterpart in nature ; but his Baleine Nordcaper is a fair re- 

 presentation of the Mysticetus. A similar error occurs with 



