62 Jriiales — Sea-horse — Seals. 



less, neglect nothing to procure so precious an animal, ami thus 

 fill one of the most-to-be-regretted gaps in EiuDpean museums. 

 But if our zoologists cannot succeed in this, we recommend 

 them to collect, principally from the fishermen they may find at 

 Spitzbergen, the fullest and most precise information on the 

 manners of this cetacea, especially on the combats in which it 

 is said to engage with the whale, its kind of food, the size of 

 the oldest males, that of the females and young, the maximum 

 length which their tusks attain to, their condition in the fe- 

 male and young, the degree of rarity of the species with two 

 tusks, and finally, the difterent disposition of the single tusk in 

 the ordinary individuals. 



2d, Whales, cachalots, and, in general, all the cetacea of the 

 Arctic seas. In want of the skin of an adult or semi-adult 

 whale, that of a young subject will be a very valuable acqui- 

 sition. The possession of the various viscera, the genital or- 

 gans, the organs of the senses, the characteristic parts of the 

 skeleton, is equally desirable. If, as may easily happen by fall- 

 ing in with a whale-ship, the zoologists of the expedition can 

 procure some parts already cut up and mangled of a very large 

 whale, they may, even in such a case, be useful to science, by 

 bringing away specimens of the great nerves and principal ves- 

 sels, selected to suit their convenience. Finally, such is the 

 imperfect state of our knowledge regarding all these gigantic 

 inhabitants of the Polar Seas, that correct drawings and mea- 

 surements will constitute a very important addition to the do- 

 cuments which science now possesses. Of these, the zoologists 

 of the expedition will find a clear and faithful resume in the 

 recent work of our fellow-member M. Frederick Cuvier on the 

 Cetacea. 



^d. The sea-horsG, almost as rare as the narwhal, and 

 scarcely better kiaown. Some authors have hinted at the ex- 

 istence of two species, depending on the form of the tusks be- 

 ing sometimes more compressed, at other times more approach- 

 ing to a conical form. These are probably only two varieties, 

 but their definite distinction would not be, on that account, a 

 less service to mammalogy.* 



* On this subject see vol. i. p. 131, &c. of Memoirs of tho Wemcri.iii Na- 

 tural History Sociotv. — Edit. 



