CETACEANS. 229 



CHAPTER VIII. 

 SOUTHERN WHALES (concluded). 



The Cape-Whale Hump-back Black- Fish Right Whale Porpoi 

 Dolphin Grampus Fin-backs Cow-Fish Killers Bone-Sharks. 



THE CAPE WHALE. 



(Balcena Australia, Desmoulins. Right Whale of the 

 South-Sea Whalers.) 



In commercial value this species is second only to 

 the Sperm Whale. In external appearance, habits, 

 and produce, it approaches so closely to the Greenland 

 Whale, (Balcena Mysticetus, Linn.,) that it was regarded 

 as the same animal, until the researches of modern 

 comparative anatomists, (and chiefly those of the im- 

 mortal Cuvier,) detected sufficient differences in the 

 structure of the two whales to justify the opinion that 

 they are distinct species,* each peculiar to the polar 

 region it inhabits. 



The Right Whale of the South seldom exceeds fifty, 

 but has been known to attain seventy feet in length ; 

 its colour is uniformly black; and a good whale, of 

 average size, will produce between eighty and ninety 

 barrels of oil. It frequents the coasts of southern con- 

 tinents, as well as those parts of the neighbouring 

 oceans where extensive tracts of discoloured water 

 denote that the sea is of comparatively little depth, 

 and where the vast congregations of medusae and 



* The Right Whale, so abundant and so little molested, in the northern- 

 most waters of the Pacific, (or off the N. W. coast of America,) is pro- 

 bably identical with the Greenland species. 



