THE WHALES. 15 



is not carried out in precisely the same manner, but it 

 is nevertheless the same idea. 



I need scarcely mention the absolute physical 

 impossibility of such a being. In the fish and the 

 mammal even the very blood is different, the mode of 

 circulation is different, and the respiration is different. 

 Had such beings really existed, they must have been 

 not only seen, but secured. They could not have 

 breathed without coming to the surface in order to 

 obtain atmospheric air, and must have done so at such 

 short intervals that they could not have escaped ob- 

 servation. 



If, then, any aquatic representatives of the monkey 

 tribe have ever existed, they must have been formed 

 in a very different manner from those fabricated ob- 

 jects which have been put forward as mermaids, or 

 from the conventional and poetical idea of such beings. 

 When combs and mirrors grow wild in the sea, then 

 will mermaids be found to use them. 



Yet, although no such beings as mermaids exist, 

 or have existed, the ocean holds creatures which are 

 every whit as wonderful. It contains mammalia of such 

 dimensions that the largest elephant is, in proportion 

 to them, but as a cat beside an ox. Indeed, none but 

 those who have seen them can have the least idea of a 

 mammal which is more than ninety feet long, and so 

 thick that if it were laid on the ground, the body 

 would reach half-way from the first to the second floor 

 of an ordinary London house. 



I have only seen a few specimens which have been 

 accidentally thrown on the shore, but even in these 

 cases was greatly struck with the very great bulk of 



