684 



C E T O L O G Y. 



Rete mu- 



uusum- 



Skin. 





Cetology. ferent species, but in general that on the upper or 

 > ' -Y- ' dorsal part of the body, is of a dark colour. Some- 



* times it is spotted, as in the narwhal, or piebald, as 



* in some balsense. Several species are half brown- and 

 half white, and some are striped with black or yel- 

 low. Often the upper part of the body is brown 

 or black, whilst the belly is of a dazzling whiteness. 

 Almost all the whales about Spitzbergen are entirely 

 white. These differences are not always specific, but 

 often depend on the age or sex of the animal, or the 

 climate in which he resides. 



The rete mucosum, which separates the cuticle from 

 the skin, is much thicker than in quadrupeds, and 

 it is this membrane which gives to the animal the 

 colour that shines through the cuticle. It is pro- 

 bable that what we have, after Mr Hunter, describ- 

 ed as the inner or central surface of the cuticle, is 

 really a layer of rete mucosum. 



The peripheral, or outer surface of the outer skin, 

 is extremely villous, and in some parts formed into 

 small ridges, like those on the tips of the human 

 fingers ; the mlli are soft, elastic, and vascular, and 

 are often of great length. Thus, in some of the 

 spermaceti whales, they are at least ^th of an inch 

 long. The skin of cetaceous animals possesses but 

 little elasticity, and is in most species stretched to 

 its utmost extent above the fat. The piked whale, 

 however, affords an exception to this remark, as the 

 skin of the forepart of the neck and breast, as far 

 back as the middle of the belly, is, in that species, 

 very elastic, and formed into longitudinal ridges, like 

 a ribbed stocking. The whole skin, including rete 

 mucosum and cuticle, is of considerable thickness. 



Between the skin and the muscles lies the adipose 

 or cellular membrane, which is loaded with a prodi- 

 gious quantity of fat. This, with its contained oil, 

 is what the Greenland fishermen call blubber, or spick. 

 It is composed of numerous membranous cells, con- 

 nected with each other, and intermixed with a denser 

 ligamentous substance. Its thickness varies consider- 

 ably. In some of the larger balsenas it is from ten 

 to twenty inches thick, while in the smaller cacha- 

 lots and dolphins, it does not exceed three or four. 



The oil contained within the cells of the blubber 

 appears to be the most fluid of all animal fat. It is 

 naturally of a softer consistence than hog's lard, and 

 is sometimes so fluid as to drop out from the cut 

 surface of the blubber, without either expression or 

 boiling. This fluid oil ia not, however, confined to 

 the blubber, but is yielded in considerable quantity 

 by the bones of the head, especially the lower jaw- 

 bones and the tongue. Its nature and properties are 

 well known. 



SECT. IX. Reproduction. 



Slubber. 



* 



?LATB In the organs and function of reproduction or ge- 



C XXXIV. neration, these animals very nearly resemble quadru- 

 Fig. 10. peds, especially those of the ruminating order. The 

 male has a penis, testicles, and vasa defer entia ; the 

 female a vagina, a clitoris, and a uterus, with its ova- 

 ries and Fallopian tubes ; but from the different form 

 of these animals, the situation of those parts, espe- 

 cially in the female, is different from that of the same 

 Milk of organs in quadrupeds. 

 the. female, The milJr of the female cetacea resembles that of 



the cow, but is said to have a richer taste, like cow's Cetoloy 

 milk with the addition of cream. """""'" .'"" *' 



The function of generation in these animals is in- ,, 

 ... ii- Conula- 



volved in much obscurity, and various conjectures t ; on> 



have been advanced respecting their mode ot copula- 

 tion, their period of gestation, and the posture in 

 which they suckle their young. 



By some it has been affirmed, that they copulate 

 in an erect posture, with their heads far out of the 

 water ; and there seems no doubt that they have been 

 observed in this strange posture, embracing each other 

 with their swimming paws. Others, with much less +L 



probability, have pretended that, during copulation, 

 the female is extended on her back, a position which 

 cannot be long preserved, from the necessity of fre- 

 quent respiration, 



Their period of gestation is not known, but it is Gestation 

 conjectured that they carry their young ten months, 

 and admit the male only once in two years, being 

 thus supposed to give suck above a year. They 

 generally bring forth only one at a birth, though 

 they have sometimes been seen with two under their 

 protection. 



Some authors pretend to describe the method in Sucklings 

 which the female suckles her young. We are told 

 by Gerardin, that'when she wishes to give suck, she 

 approaches the surface of the water, and turns her- 

 self upon one side ; she then swims sidewise, and by 

 frequent and gentle oscillations, she places herself, 

 sometimes above and sometimes below her young one, 

 according as she or it can spout out through their 

 blow-holes the water which rushes into their mouths, 

 and thus alternately respire. 



Nothing can be more uncertain than the age which Longevity, 

 these animals are capable of attaining. They have 

 been considered as the very emblems of longevity, 

 and the larger species are described as passing above 

 1000 winters among their native ice. All this, how- 

 ever, must be purely conjectural ; and it is only from 

 the analogy supposed to subsist between them and 

 the larger quadrupeds, that we can at all guess at 

 the duration of their lives. In this way we may 

 suppose, that if the elephant lives above 100 years, 

 the Greenland whale, which is nearly ten times the 

 size of that vast quadruped, should live about ten 

 centuries. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE CXXXIII. 



The figures of this Plate are intended to illustrate PLATE 

 the structure of cetaceous animals, described in the CXXXIII. 



preceding pages. 



Fig. 1. A view of the bones of the atlantal ex- 

 tremity, or swimming paw, of the dolphin, a, the 

 humerua; b, the radius; c, the ulna; d, e, f, g, h y 

 the metacarpus ; i, k, I, in, n, the phalanges of the 

 fingers. 



Fig. 2. A horizontal view of the tail of the piked- 

 whale, figured in Plate CXXXIV. Fig. 2. 



Fig. 3. The skull, jaws, and teeth of the dol- 

 phin. 



Fig. 4. The usual position and form of the teeth 

 in the physeter tribe. 



Fig. 5. The tusk or horn of the narwhal.. 



Fig. 6. The general appearance of the horny plates 

 of whalebone in the balaenae, shewing their relative si- 

 tuation, and the hairy edges in which they terminate,. 



explained. 





I 



