CETACEA. 57 



Tho great aquatic mammalia which compose the ceta- 

 ceous class occur in the Indian seas as well as elsewhere ; 

 but as a knowledge of the habits of these monsters of the 

 deep is of difficult attainment, and a mere enumeration of 

 their names, or a dry detail of their technical characteristics, 

 would probably afford but slight amusement to the reader, 

 we shall select two of the most remarkable, to " stand by 

 their order" and serve as its representatives. These are 

 the halicore or Indian dugong, and the Gangetic dolphin. 



Our readers are probably already aware, or, if they are 

 not, we take this opportunity to inform them, that the ter- 

 minal division of the class Mammalia, commonly called 

 Cetfz, contains the whole of those extraordinary beings 

 which seem to connect land-animals, or quadrupeds, with 

 fishes, properly so called. In their forms and general as- 

 pect they resemble the latter ; but in the structure and 

 functions of all their vital and most influential organs they 

 are formed entirely after the model of the higher terrestrial 

 animals. The order is divided into two great families : 1st, 

 The herbivorous cetacea, consisting of the lamantins, du- 

 gongs, and stellers ; and, 2dly, Of the ordinary cetacea, 

 including the dolphins, narwals, and whales. With the 

 exception of the lamantins, which occasionally repose on 

 the banks of rivers, none of the genera of this order ever 

 leave their native element. The members of the first family 

 (excepting the stellers, which are northern animals) are 

 only found in equatorial regions ; those of the second occur 

 in almost every quarter of the globe, although the greater 

 whales prefer the vicinity of the polar circles. We shall 

 present an example of each. 



The halicore, or " daughter of the sea," is called douyong 

 by the Malays, and has hence acquired the name of dugong 

 in our books of natural history. There is only a single 

 species as yet ascertained. It inhabits the Indian seas, es- 

 pecially the Sumatran coasts, and has been confounded by 

 several voyagers with the lamantins, which belong to the 

 African and American shores. It measures seven or eight 

 feet long, and is covered by a thick hide, of a pale-blue 

 colour, with whitish marks on the abdomen. The head 

 somewhat resembles that of a young elephant deprived of 

 its proboscis. The body is fish-shaped ; the anterior ex- 

 tremities are contained within an undivided membrane, in 



