250 



HISTORY OF FISHES. 



There is also another muscle or valve, which 

 prevents the water from going down the gul- 

 let. When therefore, the animal takes in a 

 certain quantity of water, which is necessary 

 to be discharged and separated from its food, 

 it shuts the mouth, closes the valve of the 

 stomach, opens the sphincter that kept the 

 nostril closed, and then breathing strongly 

 from the lungs, pushes the water out by effort, 

 as we see it rise by the pressure of air in a 

 fire-engine. 



The senses of these animals seem also su- 

 perior to those of other fishes. The eyes of 

 other fishes, we have observed, are covered 

 only with transparent skin that covers the rest 

 of the head ; but in all the cetaceous kinds, it 

 is covered by eye-lids, as in man. This, no 

 doubt, keeps that organ in a more perfect 

 state, by giving it intervals of relaxation, in 

 which all vision is suspended. The other 

 fishes, that are for ever staring, must see, if 

 for no other reason, more feebly, as their or- 

 gans of sight are always exerted. 



As for hearing, these also are furnished with 

 the internal instruments of the ear, although 

 the external orifice no where appears. It is 

 most probable that this orifice may open by 

 some canal, resembling the Eustachian tube, 

 into the mouth ; but this has not as yet been 

 discovered. 



Yet Nature sure has not thus formed a 

 complete apparatus for hearing, and denied 

 the animal the use of it when formed. It is 

 most likely that all animals of the cetaceous 

 kind can hear, as they certainly utter sounds, 

 and bellow to each other. This vocal power 

 would be as needless to animals naturally deaf, 

 as glasses to a man that was blind. 



But it is in the circumstances in which 

 they continue their kind, that these animals 

 show an eminent superiority. Other fish de- 

 posit their spawn, and leave the success to 

 accident ; these never produce above one 

 young, or two at the most; and this the female 

 suckles entirely in the manner of quadrupeds, 

 her breasts being placed, as in the human 

 kind, above the navel. We have read many 

 fabulous accounts of the nursing of the demi- 

 gods of antiquity, of their feeding on the mar- 

 row of lions, and their being suckled by 

 wolves : one might imagine a still more heroic 

 system of nutrition, if we supposed that the 

 young hero was suckled and grew strong upon 

 the breast-milk of a she-whale ! 



The whale or the grampus are terrible at 

 any time ; but are fierce and desperate in the 

 defence of their young. In Waller's beautiful 

 poem of the Summer Islands, we have a story, 

 founded upon fact, which shows the maternal 

 tenderness of these animals for their offspring. 

 A whale and her cub had got in an arm of 

 the sea, where, by the desertion of the tide, 



they were inclosed on every side. The people 

 from shore soon saw their situation, and drove 

 down upon them in boats, with such weapons 

 as the urgent occasion offered. The two ani- 

 mals were soon wounded in several places, 

 and the whole sea round was tinctured with 

 their blood. The whales made several at- 

 tempts to escape ; and at last the old one, by 

 its superior strength, forced over the shallow 

 into the depths of the ocean. But though in 

 safety herself, she could not bear the danger 

 that awaited her young one ; she therefore 

 rushed in once more where the smaller animal 

 was imprisoned, and resolved, when she could 

 not protect, at least to share its danger. The 

 story ends with poetical justice ; for the tide 

 coming in, brought off both in safety from 

 their enemies, though not without sustaining 

 an infinite number of wounds on every part. 



As to the rest, the distinctive marks of this 

 tribe are, that the number of their fins never 

 exceed three ; namely, two pectoral fins, and 

 one back fin ; but in some sorts the last is 

 wanting. These fins differ very much from 

 those of other fishes, which are formed of 

 straight spines : the fins of the cetaceous tribe 

 are made up of bones and muscles ; and the 

 skeleton of one of their fins very much re- 

 sembles the skeleton of a man's hand. Their 

 tails also are different from those of all other 

 fish : they are placed so as to lie fiat on the 

 surface of the water; while the other kinds 

 have them, as we every day see, upright or 

 edgeways. This flat position of the tail in 

 cetaceous animals, enables them to force them- 

 selves suddenly to the surface of the water to 

 breathe, which they are continually con- 

 strained to do. 



Of these enormous animals some are without 

 teeth, and properly called whales : others have 

 the teeth only in the lower jaw, and are called, 

 by the French, cachalots : the narwhal has 

 teeth only in the upper jaw : the dolphin's 

 teeth as well as those of the porpoise and 

 grampus, are both above and below. These 

 are the marks that serve to distinguish the 

 kinds of this enormous tribe from each other ; 

 and these shall serve to guide us in giving 

 their history. 



CHAP. III. 



OF THE WHALE PROPERLY SO CALLED, AND 

 ITS VARIETIES. 



IF we compare land animals, in respect to 

 magnitude, with those of the deep, they will 

 appear contemptible in the competition. It 

 is probable, indeed, that quadrupeds once ex- 

 isted much larger than we find them at pre- 



