FISHES. 459 



iiig strongly from the lungs, pushes the water out by effort, as 

 we see it rise by the pressure of air in a tire-engiiie. 



The senses of these animals seem also superior to those of 

 other fishes. The eyes of other fishes, we have observed, are 

 covered only with transparent skin that covers the rest of the 

 head ; but in all the cetaceous kinds, it is covered by eye-lids, as 

 in man. This, no doubt, keeps that organ in a more perfect 

 state, by giving it intervals of relaxation, in which all vision is 

 suspended. The other fishes, that are for ever staring, must 

 see, if for no other reason, more feebly, as their organs of sight 

 are always exerted. 



As for hearing, these also are furnished with the internal in- 

 struments of the ear, although the external orifice no where ap- 

 pears. It is most probable that this orifice may open by some 

 canal, resembling the Eustachian tube, into the mouth ; but this 

 has not as yet been discovered. 



Yet Nature sure has not thus formed a complete apparatus 

 for hearing, and denied the animal the use of it when formed. 

 It is most likely that all animals of the cetaceous kind can hear, 

 as they certainly utter sounds, and bellow to each other. This 

 vocal power would be as needless to animals naturally deaf, as 

 glasses to a man that was blind. 



But it is in the circumstances in which they continue their 

 kind, that these animals show an eminent superiority. Other 

 fish deposit their spawn, and leave the success to accident ; these 

 never produce above one young, or two at the most ; and this 

 the female suckles entirely in the manner of quadrupeds, her 

 breasts being placed, as in the human kind, above the navel. 

 We have read many fabulous accounts of the imrsiiig of the de- 

 migods of antiquity, of their feeding on the marrow of lions, 

 and their being suckled by wolves : one might imagine a still 

 more heroic system of nutrition, if we supposed that the young 

 hero was suckled and grew strong ujion the breast-milk of a she- 

 whale ! 



The whale or the grampus are terrible at any time ; but are 

 fierce and desperate in the defence of their young. In AV'aller's 

 beautiful poem of the Summer Islands, we have a story, founded 

 upon fact, which shows the maternal tenderness of these animals 

 for their offspring. A whale and her cub had got in an arm of 

 the sea, where, by the desertion of the tide, they were iiidosecl 



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