246 GREENLAND WHALE. ORDER RODENTIA. 



depth, sometimes nearly 1000 fathoms ; and it has been 

 known to strike itself so violently against the hard bed of the 

 ocean, as even to fracture its jaws. This Whale usually lives in 

 pairs, but sometimes the abundance of food in a particular spot 

 draws a number together. The female shows the most devoted 

 attachment to her young ; always coming to its assistance when 

 it is attacked, even to her own certain destruction. The length 

 of the Greenland Whale is from 60 to 70, or even 80 feet ; that 

 of the Rorqual (of which a skeleton was exhibited not long since 

 in the principal towns of this country) often exceeds 100 feet. 

 The latter is not often chased ; as the quantity of blubber it 

 yields is small, and the whalebone of inferior quality. 



ORDER YIL RODENTIA. 



215. We now proceed to the Herbivorous series of the higher 

 division of the Class Mammalia ; and we shall have to notice in 

 it a series of forms very different from those which have hitherto 

 engaged our attention. The order RODENTIA, which next presents 

 itself to our consideration, occupies, in many respects, an inter- 

 mediate place between the purely carnivorous and the purely 

 herbivorous Mammalia, so as to form the connecting link between 

 them. We have seen that in the first (with the exception of the 

 Cetacea, which are aberrant forms of the Carnivorous series, and 

 a few other aberrant genera), three kinds of teeth are always 

 found ; the bones of the fore-arm are separate, so that the hand, 

 or fore-foot, has the power of rotation ; and that the fingers are 

 distinct, and terminated by separate nails or claws. In the 

 Ruminant quadrupeds, which may be considered as the types of 

 the second group, there is a complete want of canine teeth ; the 

 bones of the fore-arm are consolidated together, so that the fore- 

 foot loses all power of rotation ; and the bones of the toes are 

 also partly united, and their extremities inclosed in a hoof, which 

 totally destroys the power of prehension, and blunts the sensibi- 

 lity of the organ, so that it becomes merely an instrument of 

 support and motion. Now in the order RODENTIA, or Gnawers, 



