WHALES. 217 



little different from those of land animals, and that 

 they bring forth their young alive, and suckle them 

 with milk, in the same manner as the mammalia ; they 

 are therefore not fishes, but mammalia,- adapted to 

 swim, feed, and do every thing in the water but breathe, 

 and that they must do at the surface. 



Though the skeleton of this tribe of animals be 

 concealed under the mass of muscles and of fat, it 

 has many points of resemblance to those of land 

 animals. The hinder part of the animal is that in which 

 the greatest difference is found. There are no pelvis 

 or lower extremities, but the vertebrae of the back 

 are continued to those of the tail. The bones of the 

 fore extremities are very similar, both in number and 

 articulation, to those of the human race : there is a 

 scapula, or blade-bone, a humerus, or shoulder-bone, 

 two bones in the fore-arm, and the articulation of a 

 hand with five fingers. The substance of the muscles, 

 too, is not like fish, but like that of land animals, hardly 

 to be known from the flesh on the horse or ox. 

 Even the skin is unlike the skin of fishes, with its 

 scales and mucus-glands. Externally, it resembles the 

 skin on the sole of the human foot, and consists of an 

 epidermis, or scarf skin, a mucous net, and a true skin. 

 Below all these, there is a cellular texture, similar in 

 its structure to that of the hog, capable of containing, 

 and usually containing, a vast quantity of fat in its 

 cells. That fat generally contains more fluid oil, and 

 less of white crystallizable suet or stearine, than the 

 fat of land animals ; but in some of the species there is 

 a great deal, easily separated from the fluid oil, and 

 known in commerce by the name of SPERMACETI : and 

 u 



