216 WHALES. 



for our being able to draw any certain conclusion 

 respecting it. On tins most interesting, but most 

 difficult branch of the science of nature, modern in- 

 vestigation has done much, but it must do much more 

 before any general theory can be established with 

 the certainty of being true. Out of the existing mate- 

 rials, it would be easy to form a hypothesis just as 

 it is easy to manufacture the tale of a life out of a few 

 traits ; but a mere hypothesis in the study of nature is 

 a much more blind and unsafe guide than a mere ro- 

 mance in the study of man. 



But we do not need to ransack the tombs and monu- 

 ments of the ocean and its inhabitants, for subjects 

 of pleasure or instruction. Every portion of it is full 

 of life ; and though the structure, habits, and economy 

 of its plants and its animals are different from those of 

 the land, the wisdom displayed in fitting them for the 

 element in which they live is not the less manifest, or 

 the less worthy of admiration. In the British seas, 

 though only as occasional visitants, the animals that 

 claim the first attention are 



WHALES. 



THERE are many species to which the general name 

 of whales or cetaceous animals is given ; and they vary 

 considerably in their size, their habits, and the struc- 

 ture of particular parts of their bodies ; but they all 

 have these. in common; that they inhale the air directly 

 into lungs, and do not separate it from the water by 

 gills ; that they are warm-blooded, and have the cir- 

 culating system and the composition of the blood very 



