240 DOLPHINS. 



whales. It is also found on the shores of Germany 

 and France; and in the year 1723, seventeen of them 

 appeared off the mouth of the Elbe, and with their high 

 dorsal fins, like sails, were, by the Fishermen of Cux- 

 haven, mistaken for a fleet of Dutch fishing boats. 

 This species also finds its way into the Mediterranean ; 

 and La Cepede, who seems disposed to magnify all the 

 powers of this animal and they do not stand much in 

 need of magnifying will have it, that the sea-monster, 

 from which the valorous Perseus delivered the fair 

 Andromeda, was an animal of this species ; and that 

 the Orca with which, as Pliny says, the emperor Claudius 

 and his troops fought in the port of Ostia, was another. 

 These suppositions, like the tales themselves, may be 

 true or they may be false, but there is enough contained 

 in authentic history, to show that the physeter microps, 

 if not the most powerful animal, is among the most 

 powerful animals that inhabit the globe. 



The habits of the animal are of too active a nature 

 for admitting of a very great quantity of oil ; but its 

 enormous head contains a good deal of spermaceti, of 

 very excellent quality. Like the rest of the sperma- 

 ceti whales, it has only one blow-hole, but that is of 

 considerable dimensions, and it throws its jet of water 

 to a great height. 



AMBIDENTATJE. 



THE animals of this class are not of so large di- 

 mensions as those of any of the former, the largest of 

 them not measuring more than five and twenty feet in 

 length. Still they are formidable animals, and in some 



