THE SPERMACETI WHALE. 155 



to have been foiled ; and it was reserved for Cuvier 

 to cut at all events, if not to unravel the knot. He 

 remarks, " the history of this animal is so perplexed, 

 so many beings have been confounded with it, and 

 the species have been so wantonly multiplied, that, 

 to obtain some precision on the subject, I have been 

 necessitated to review, chronologically, every thing 

 that naturalists have written on the point/' After 

 making this review, he concludes with these words : 

 " Will it now then be regarded as great temerity in 

 me, after having produced the ideas of so many 

 learned men, to maintain that, up to the present 

 time, there is no ground to suppose that there is 

 more than a single species of Cachalot ?" 



And as, till the time of Cuvier, there was the 

 greatest confusion regarding alleged species, so, till 

 a much more recent date, there was an almost un- 

 accountable paucity of information regarding its 

 real habits and history ; though, in a national and 

 commercial point of view, it is second in interest 

 only to the Mysticetus. From the difficulty of ex- 

 amining these animals, and the few opportunities 

 presented to zoologists, there is really very little at 

 all satisfactory about them in the annals of Cetology, 

 and even the economical notices are but few and 

 meagre. We rejoice to say, that this deficiency has 

 to a considerable extent been supplied during the past 

 year by a gentleman, who, for upwards of two years, 

 was engaged in its capture, and who read a paper 

 upon it to the Eclectic Society of London in 1835. 

 When engaged in the fishery, Mr. Beale, who is a 



