674 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1712. 



fat ; insomuch, that when I squeezed the flesh, the fat came ont at the end of 

 it. And. the particles of the flesh seemed finer than those of an ox. 



The captain also acquainted me, that the whale has three distinct skins; 

 the uppermost of which is very thin, and the next to it is as soft as velvet; 

 but the third and undermost is a thick skin, which we call the sward, and is 

 like the skin of a hog. Soon after he gave me a little piece of the first skin, 

 which he said was easily separated from the second; it was no thicker than a 

 leaf of writing paper. Having viewed it through a microscope, I judged it to 

 be composed of such flattish particles as I can call by no other name than 

 little scales, and which were no larger than the little scales of which our own 

 outer skin is composed : but whereas the scales of our skin are very easily se- 

 parated, and especially the uppermost scales, which are shed or cast often, the 

 little scales of the skin of the whale are firmly united together. 



When I came to view the aforesaid skin, with regard to its thickness, I 

 discovered, that there were at least 20 skins upon one another; all which were 

 composed of little scales, and of exceedingly small particles that lay scattered 

 under those scales ; but as carefully as I examined the said skin, I could not 

 discover in it the least fibres or vessels. 



I got also a piece of the second skin of a whale, about as broad as my hand, 

 which was as black as pitch. This skin was dried hard, and was almost half 

 an inch thick ; but it was not strong, because there were no vessels or sinewy 

 fibres running through each other, as in the skins of beasts and our common 

 fish ; only there were some small fibres that joined it a little to the skin that 

 lay under, and which passed, as it were, in a right line to the uppermost super- 

 ficies of the skin. 



The undermost, or third skin, was whitish, and so strong, that I concluded, 

 in case the harping iron was struck so deep into the whale, that its barbs pene- 

 trated into the aforesaid white or third skin, it would keep its hold ; but if it 

 went no further than into the black skin, it would easily be torn out. 



I observed, that the black skin was clammy, or glutinous, when it was wet; 

 from whence I concluded, that there might be drawn a very good glue from it. 



From the black skin and black blood of a whale, I turned my thoughts to 

 the black blood of a salmon; and supposed, that the redness of the flesh of 

 that creature, was alone occasioned by the blackness of its blood; and that in 

 like manner the blackness of the flesh of whales proceeded from the same 

 cause. From hence I considered, whether the blackness of the men on the 

 coast of Guinea, might not also proceed from their black blood; and whether 

 also their flesh might not be blacker than that of white men, and that the 

 blackness of their skin alone depended on their black blood; which deserves to 

 be considered.* 



