FISHES IN GENERAL 241 



CHAPTER II. 



OF CETACEOUS FISHES IN GENERAL. 



AS on land there are some orders of animals that seem formed to 

 command the rest, with greater powers and more various instincts, so 

 in the ocean there are fishes which seem formed upon a nobler plan 

 than others, and that, to their fishy form, join the appetites 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 

 eluded them from the finny 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 sportsman goes to Blackwall fowling for mackarel. 



Yet, notwithstanding philosophers, mankind will always have their 

 own way of talking; 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 breathe ; they are only seen in the 

 depths of the ocean, and never come upon shore but when forced 

 thither. These, sure, 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 as many degrees raised above other fishes in their 

 nature, as they are in general in their size. This tribe is composed 

 of the Whale and its varieties, of the Cachalot, the Dolphin, the 

 Grampus, and the Porpoise. All these resemble quadrupeds in theii 

 internal structure, and in some of their appetites and affections. 

 Like quadrupeds, they have lungs, a midriff, a stomach, intestines, 

 liver, spleen, bladder, and parts of generation ; their heart also re- 

 sembles that of quadrupeds, with its partitions closed up as in them. t 

 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 breathe the air, it is obvious that they cannot 

 bear to be any long time under water. They are constrained, there- 

 fore, 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 

 This conduit, by which they breathe, and also throw out the water, i> 



