WHALES. 207 



inquired into, before i^erfect reliance can be placed on species foimded on such fragmentary portions 

 of a solitary organ. 



The classification and the characters of the existing Cetacea were for long in a most un- 

 satisfactory state, and it is only now that the labours of Gray, Eschricht, Van Beneden, Flower, 

 and others, who have spent much time and given much thought -to the elucidation of this most 

 difficult group, have begun to clear ujd the darkness in which they were enveloped. 



The residt of their labours has been practically to destroy all confidence in the determination 

 of any of the species hitherto described, which have not undergone the searching scrutiny which they 

 show to be essential to an identification of species. Mr. Flower, for example, has pointed out* 

 that the size of the animal is a very important element in determining its species, and that this 

 is very constant, subject to the variation due to age: and that the difference in age, which for 

 practical purposes may be divided into three stages, is indicated by the state of the bones ; being 

 soft and spongy, and with their ends incomplete in the young, more advanced in the middle-aged, 

 and perfect in the adult. The proportions and form of the bones also vary according to age ; 

 therefore it is plain, that no description founded upon a skeleton can be of much value unless it 

 mentions the condition of the bones, and the probable age of the specimen, — a thing that has rarely 

 been attended to by describers. The points where variation occurs were also not known, nor which 

 were of specific value, and which might be mere individual aberrations ; and indeed, these points 

 are but imperfectly known even yet, and only in a few species. 



As may be expected, our knowledge of the geographical distribution of species, whose identi- 

 fication is so difficult, is by no means to be depended on, and the localities which are recorded of 

 many of them must be taken as applying to genera than species. 



Whales are di^•ided into two verj^ natural sections, — the T^Tialebone Whales and the 

 Doljjhins ; the former with baleen and no teeth (after birth), tlie latter with teeth and no baleen. 

 To which we may add a third, the Zeuglodontid.e — Extinct "Whales with teeth bearing some 

 resemblance to those of Seals. 



These sections, again, have been divided by Prof. Eschricht, Mr. Flower, and Dr. Gray, into 

 families, sub-families, and genera. These may be of use for the purposes of systematic classification ; 

 for geographical distribution the old genera will be sufficient. 



Bal^nidje. — Right whalebone -whales (Maps 52 and 53.) '\^nialebone Whales are divided into 

 Eight- Whales and Finners. The " right " "Whales of the whalers, that is, the right kind to kill, 

 may be briefly characterised as having long baleen, and no dorsal fin ; the Finners, by short baleen 

 and a dorsal fin. Until recently the right Whales have been supposed to consist of only two species, 

 one the B. mysticetus, confined to the Northern hemisphere, the other the B. australis, restricted 

 to the Southern. Johnston, in his Phj'sical Atlas,t and Lieut. Maury,* give maps in which they 

 show the range of both of these. The Northern right Whale, according to these maps, occupies 

 the Polar seas, the Atlantic north of a line drawn from Newfoundland to Madeii-a, and terminating 

 at Cape St. Vincent, and all the Pacific north of an irregidar line whose most southerlj' points are 

 30° and 33° and the most northerly 45° or 50^ But the researches of Eschricht and Reinhardtg 



* Flower, in " Proceed. Zool. Soc," 1864, p. 384. § Eschricht and Keixhardt, " Oni Nordhvalcii.'" 



+ Johnston'.s "Physical Atlas." 1861. A transl.iliuii of the Uauish mouograph is intended 



X Maury " Ou the Physical Geography of the Sea," to be published by the Kay Society, 

 nth ed. 1 860. 



