

CETACEA. 255 



of a man, presenting a strong contrast to the contracted gullet of 

 the mysticctus, or Greenland Whale. The mouth is lined with 

 a pearly white membrane. The eyes are small in proportion to 

 the size of the animal, and furnished with eye-lids ; the skin is 

 usually smooth, but in old whales sometimes wrinkled. At each 

 breathing time, the Cachalot makes from sixty to seventy expira- 

 tions, remaining at the surface of the water ten or eleven min- 

 utes. It continues below the surface for periods of from an hour to 

 an hour and twenty minutes, consuming about one-seventh of its 

 time in respiration. The Sperm- Whale feeds upon seal and 

 fishes, which it pursues with great pertinacity ; but a large species 

 of cuttle fish, (Octopus,) is said to constitute its principal food. 

 Its forty-eight huge teeth, which it sometimes employs in biting 

 boats, make it formidable to whalers. Sometimes it swims off 

 to a distance, and then rushes at the boat with its head, thereby 

 knocking it to pieces. One of these whales sunk a ship by three 

 or four blows from its head. The Sperm-Whale fishery is a 

 principal branch of the industry of the United States, hundreds 

 of ships being engaged in this important branch of the fisheries. 



The names of the genera as given in the Catalogue of the 

 British Museum, are Genus I. Catodon, 3 species; C. macroce- 

 phalus, Northern Sperm-Whale ; C. colueti, Mexican Sperm- 

 Whale ; C. polycyplius, South Sea Sperm-Whale. Genus II. 

 Kogia, one species ; K. breviceps, Short-Headed Whale. Genus 

 III. Physeter. P. tursio, the Black Fish. 



III. BALAENID.E. (Gr. fibluivat, balaina, a whale.) TRUE 

 or WHALE-BONE WHALES. 



These include but a limited number of species, comprised in 

 four, or according to Dr. J. E. Gray, three genera. They equal 

 the Sperm-Whale in size. The head is very large, but does not, 

 like theirs, terminate in a broad, abrupt muzzle. They have two 

 nostrils, separate and longitudinal. The jaws are toothless; the 

 blow-holes distinct, situated on the top of the head and each a 

 foot long. The absence of teeth specially distinguishes these 

 from other whales ; their place in the upper jaw, which is ex- 

 tremely narrow, is supplied by baleen, or whalebone, consisting of 

 pendent, horny plates, or lamina (see Chart,) each fringed so closely 

 as to fill up the cavity of the mouth and form a strainer retaining 

 the Clio Borealis. minute crustaceans, and other small tenants of 

 the sea. These are carried by thousands into the vast spoon-shaped 

 lower jaw. The laminae or plates are three or four hundred in 



