OF THE CETACEA. 57 



If in any way they can produce a loud noise in air, 

 what is to hinder them from doing the same under 

 water ? And if they have this faculty at all, then, 

 according to well known accoustic principles, would 

 not the sound be heard better, and conveyed farthei 

 than in air ; and would not this satisfactorily explain 

 the fact so often stated, that they have some myste- 

 rious mode of intercommunication under water, to 

 the extent in the sperm whale, according to Beale 

 of four, five, and even seven miles, of which no 

 explanation, so far as we know, has hitherto been 

 attempted ? We venture to throw out this idea foi 

 the consideration of those who have better oppor- 

 tunities of judging than ourselves. It would pro- 

 bably require a more minute knowledge of the wind- 

 pipe and neighbouring parts, ere we can minutely 

 explain the mode in which these cries are uttered, 

 and this voice, so to call it, exerted. 



We need scarcely remark, that it is the apparatus 

 above alluded to that has procured for the order the 

 popular name of blowers, which is applicable to all the 

 ordinary Cete. Their spoutings or jets d'eau, as they 

 have been called, are heard as well as seen at a 

 great distance, as much as two and three miles, and 

 rise sometimes as high as twenty or thirty feet. It 

 was for long supposed that this appearance was 

 chiefly owing to the water which they take in with 

 their food, and which, if swallowed, would only op- 

 press them. But in opposition to this, it has more 

 recently been maintained, that the proper egress of 

 the water is the same as its ingress, and that by 



