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A HISTORY OF 



CHAPTER CXXXVH. 



OF CETACEOUS FISHES IN GENERAL. 



AS on land there are some orders of ani- 

 mals that seem formed to command the rest, 

 with greater powers and more various in- 

 stincts, so in the ocean there are fishes which 

 seem formed upon a nobler plan than others, 

 and that, to their fishy form, join the appe- 

 tites and the conformation of quadrupeds. 

 These are all of the cetaceous kind ; and so 

 much raised above their fellows of the deep, 

 in their appetites and instincts, that almost 

 all our modern naturalists have fairly ex- 

 cluded them from the tinny tribes, and will 

 have them called, not fishes, but, great beasts 

 of the ocean. With them it would be as im- 

 proper to say men go to Greenland fishing 

 for whale, as it would be to say that a sports- 

 man goes to Blackwall a fowling for macka- 

 rel. 



Yet, notwithstanding philosophers, man- 

 kind will always have their own way of talk- 

 ing; and, for my own part, I think them here 

 in the right. A different formation of the 

 lungs, stomach, and intestines; a different 

 manner of breathing or propagating; are not 

 sufficient to counterbalance the great obvious 

 analogy which these animals bear to the 

 whole finny tribe. They are shaped as other 

 fishes ; they swim with fins ; they are entirely 

 naked, without hair; they live in the water, 

 though they come up to breath ; they are 

 only seen in the depths of the ocean, and 

 never come upon shore but when forced 

 thither. These, surely, are sufficient to plead 

 in favour of the general denomination, and 

 acquit mankind of error in ranking them with 

 their lower companions of the deep. 



But still they are many degrees raised 

 above other fishes in their nature, as they are 

 in general in their size. This tribe is com- 



spiration the element is received into the lungs or gills, 

 and in expiration is returned deprived of its purer parts, 

 which are retained for the purpose of animal economy. 

 And whatever salt may be taken into the stomachs of 

 fishes with their food, is decomposed and separated into 



posed of the Whale and its varieties, of the 

 Cachalot, the Dolphin, the Grampus, and the 

 Porpoise. All these resemble quadrupeds 

 in their internal structure, and in some of 

 their appetites and affections. Like quadru- 

 peds, they have lungs, a midriff", a stomach, 

 intestines, liver, spleen, bladder, and parts of 

 generation ; their heart also resembles that 

 of quadrupeds, with its partitions closed up 

 as in them, and driving red and warm blood 

 in circulation through the body. In short, 

 every internal part bears a most striking 

 similitude; and to keep these parts warm, 

 the whole kind are also covered between the 

 skin and the muscles with a thick coat of fat 

 or blubber, which, like the bacon-fat of a 

 hog, keeps out the cold, renders their muscles 

 glib and pliant, and probably makes them 

 lighter in swimming. 



As these animals breath the air, it is obvi- 

 ous that they cannot bear to be any long 

 time under water. They are constrained, 

 therefore, every two or three minutes, to 

 come up to the surface to take breath, as 

 well as to spout out through their nostril (for 

 they have but one) that water which they 

 sucked in while gaping for their prey. Thia 

 conduit, by which they breath, and also throw 

 out the water, is placed in the head, a little 

 before the brain. Though externally the 

 hole is but single, it is internally divided by 

 a bony partition, which is closed by a sphinc- 

 ter muscle on the inside, that, like the mouth, 

 of a purse, shuts it up at the pleasure of the 

 animal. There is also another muscle or 

 valve, which prevents the water from going 

 down the gullet. When, therefore, the ani- 

 mal takes in a certain quantity of water, 

 which is necessary to be discharged and 



its component parts of acid and soda. The sailor that 

 feeds for twelve mouths together on salted meats, has not 

 his own flesh made salt ; but a decomposition taking place 

 during the process of digestion, he becomes corrupted and 

 scorbutic by the excess of soda and magnesia. 



