200 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 



oblique laminae of a softer substance, usually 

 denominated whalebone, which is adapted only 

 for the crushing and masticating of soft bodies ; 

 therefore instead of a prey more proportioned to 

 their bulk, they contentedly make their meal off 

 these small but innumerable gelatines, which, by 

 their number, make up for their want of magni- 

 tude, and are exactly suited to the masticating 

 organs of their devourer ; and though the waste 

 of animal life seems almost infinite, yet was it 

 not for this check, so great appear to be the 

 powers of multiplication of the smaller creatures 

 that swarm under the ice of the Arctic seas, there 

 would be more than could be maintained con- 

 sistently with the general welfare. 



The object of Providence throughout our 

 globe, as has been before observed, is so to 

 balance the respective numbers of the different 

 kinds of animals, from the invisible monad to 

 the gigantic whale, that a certain proportion may 

 be preserved, with regard to their numbers, 

 between them, so that each may be in sufficient 

 force to accomplish the end for which it was 

 created. We may observe that though the whale 

 devours myriads of millions, yet the quantum of 

 suffering is less than if he were enabled to make 

 his meal off larger animals, and his jaws, like 

 the shark's, were fitted with laniary teeth. In 

 fact the gelatines are incapable of suffering pain, 

 having no digested nervous system, and when 



