162 NATURAL HISTORY [Fishes. 



" the lower jaw ; the teeth were flat oh the top, and stood 

 " out only an half an inch without the gurns." Sir Robert 

 says these had no spout-hole, but Mr Pennant, with more ap- 

 pearance of truth, thinks what Sir Robert took for nostrils, 

 by being placed at the extremity of the nose, was that part 

 which is peculiar to the whale-kind, and wanting in none, 

 though differently placed in different subjects. 



This kind had two pectoral fins, and a rough space on the 



back, but no fin or spine. Whether spermaceti was found in 



/ 



this, Sir Robert was uncertain, but it is probable there was, 

 as all the known whales of this genus which frequent the Bri- 

 tish coasts, are found to yield more or less of this. 



Species 3. The High-famed Cachalot. 



Balaena macrocephala tripinnis, qua' in mandibula inferiors dentes habet minus 

 inflexos et in planum desinentes, Sib. Phal. 43. Raii Syn. Pise. 16. Brit. 

 Zool. 47. Physeter Tursio, Lin. Sys. 107. 



ONE of this species is recorded by Sir Robert Sibbald, 

 which was thrown ashore on the Orkneys in 1687- This was 

 a very large female. The spout-hole was placed in the front , 

 the head, according to his description, was eight or nine feet 

 high ; toothed only in the lower jaw ; the teeth were slightly bent, 

 much compressed on the sides, the point rather blunt than 

 flat ; the bottom thin, having a very narrow but long orifice, 

 or slit, hollowed to the depth of five inches and a quarter, in 



