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arid its great size, together with the great length 

 of the nasal cavities, serves to explain the im- 

 mense distance at which some of them the vul- 

 ture for example are known to scent can-ion : 

 it is said to be capable of doing this over the 

 whole breadth of the Mediterranean ! 



The nasal cavities of mammiferous animals 

 run in general horizontally ; but, in the cetace- 

 ous tribes, as I have already said, their inclina- 

 tion is perpendicular, the outer opening being at 

 the top of their heads. Many animals of this 

 kind, as the porpoise, the whale and the narwal, 

 are generally regarded as destitute of smell, since 

 they have no proper olfactory nerve ; and cer- 

 tainly the hard and dry lining of their nostrils, 

 like that of the proboscis of the elephant, is ap- 

 parently very little adapted to this sensation. 

 The projecting bones, by which the nasal cavities 

 are, in most animals, more or less divided, are, 

 in quadrupeds, extremely complicated, being, in 

 most herbivorous species both variously convolu- 

 ted, and pierced sometimes like lattice work ; 

 and, in most carnivorous, lamellated like the 

 leaves of a book a structure calculated, by in- 

 creasing the surface, together with the great 

 length in general of their snout, and the large 

 size of their olfactory nerves, immensely to in- 

 crease the acuteness of their smell. The " intel- 

 lectual noses," as they are called by Lord Byron, 

 of dogs are proverbial ; and the distance from 

 which many other quadrupeds, particularly such 

 as are carnivorous, are sometimes attracted by 



