CETACEANS. 181 



the breaking of the waves, and the noise of its own re- 

 spiration, tend much to disguise other sounds. 



The habitat of the Sperm Whale is more peculiarly 

 the central and fathomless waters of oceans, or the vici- 

 nity of the most abrupt coasts. Occasionally, though 

 very rarely, they frequent the shallower seas, so com- 

 monly the resort of the True Whale.* The geographical 

 range of the species must be regarded as very extensive ; 

 since no part of the aqueous globe, excepting the Polar 

 Seas, would appear to be altogether inimical to their 

 habits or free from their visits. In the southern hemi- 

 sphere, their excursions are known to extend as high as 

 between the sixtieth and seventieth parallels of latitude, 

 or off the shores of the South Shetland Islands. In 

 the northern, their boundary can be fixed, with more 

 accuracy, at about the sixtieth degree of latitude, for, 

 although the species has been observed on the south 

 coast of Greenland, and as high as the corresponding 

 latitude off the American and Asiatic continents, it is 

 unknown to the whaler in the Arctic Ocean. 



In all the intermediate climates Sperm Whales have 

 been found more or less abundant. They have been 

 noticed in the Mediterranean Sea, and have been occa- 

 sionally cast ashore upon many parts of the coast of con- 

 tinental Europe, and Great Britain .f Living examples 

 have been captured in the British Channel, and one in- 

 dividual in the river Thames. It is, however, in the 

 warmer seas, within, or upon the verge of, the tropics, 



* So great is the difference in habitat between the two cetaceans, 

 that during the entire period we were cruising in quest of the Cachalot, 

 we in no single instance saw an example of the True-Whale. (B. mysti- 

 cettis.} 



t Captain T. Stavers informs me, that he has lowered his boats in pmv 

 suit of a school of Cachalots when but forty-eight hours' sail from Ports- 

 mouth harbour. 



