122 ORDER OF CETACEA. 



places, and the Bison was couched beside him, apparently wait- 

 ing to renew the attack, had he shown any signs of life. 



19. " The favourite Indian method of killing the Bison, is 

 by riding to the fattest of the herd on horseback, and shooting 

 it with an arrow. When a large party of hunters are engaged 

 in this way on an extensive plain, the spectacle is very imposing, 

 and the young men have many opportunities of displaying their 

 skill and agility." Richardson's Travels. 



O R D S R OF CETACEA. 



20. Whales, Dolphins, Porpoises, and other animals of analo- 

 gous structure, designated by naturalists under the name ol 

 Ci-tacea, so closely resemble fishes in their external form, as well 

 as in their mode of living, that the ignorant always regard them 

 as belonging to this class ; but, if we do not confine ourselves to a 

 superficial examination of these singular beings, and study their 

 organization and the mechanism of their functions, we shall at 

 once be convinced that, in every important particular, they depart 

 from the fishes, to approach the ordinary mammalia. Like the 

 first, they have the trunk seemingly confounded with the head, 

 and continued without interruption into a thick tail, terminated 

 by a broad fin, and the anterior extremities transformed into 

 fins ; they want the posterior extremities, and their skin is not 

 furnished with hair like that of ordinary mammals; but, although 

 they keep constantly in the water, they have no branchiae, and 

 respire through the medium of lungs ; which obliges them to rise 

 frequently to the surface, to breathe the air which is necessary to 

 the maintenance of their life. Their blood is warm ; the heart 

 has two ventricles and two auricles; their young are born alive, 

 and they are provided with a mammary apparatus for suckling 

 them. 



21, Consequently Cetacea are true mammals; but, in place of 

 being organized for living on land, like quadrupeds of this class, 

 they possess important modifications in their structure which 

 renders these anirrals essentially aquatic, and the density of the 

 element which they inhabit, permits them to acquire dimensions 

 which would have been incompatible with the manner of living and 

 moving proper to other mammalia ; it is in this group that the 

 giants of the creation a"re found. The very largest quadrupeds 



19. What is the favourite Indian method of killing the Bison ? 



20. Why is a Whale not a fish ? 



21. What are Cetacea ? 



