78 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1725. 



An Essay on the Natural History of TFhales; with a particular Account of the 

 Ambergris found in the Sperma Ceti IVhule. By the Hon. Paul Dudley, 

 F. R. S. N° 387, p. 256. 



The following account respects only such whales as are found on the coast 

 of New England. And of these there are divers sorts or kinds. 



As first, the right, or whalebone whale, is a large fish, measuring 6o or 70 

 feet in length, and very bulky, having no scales, but a soft fine smooth skin, 

 no fins, but only one on each side, from 5 to 8 feet long, which they are not 

 observed to use, but only in turning themselves, unless while young, and car- 

 ried by the dam on the flukes of their tails; when with those fins they clasp 

 about her small, and so hold themselves on. This fish, when first brought 

 forth, is about 20 feet long, and of little value, but then the dam is very fat. 

 At a year old, when they are culled short heads, they are very fat, and yield to 

 50 barrels of oil ; but by that time the dam is very poor, and termed a dry-skin, 

 and will not yield more than 30 barrels of oil, though of large size. At '2 years 

 old, they are called stunts, being stunted after weaning, and will then yield 

 generally from 24 to 28 barrels. After this, they are termed scull-fish, their 

 age not being known, but only guessed at by the length of the bone in their 

 mouths. The whale-bone, so called, grows in the upper jaw on each side, and 

 is sometimes 6 or 7 feet in length. A good large whale has yielded a thousand 

 weight of bone. It is thought by some, that the hairy part of the whale-bone, 

 and which is next to the tongue, serves in the nature of a strainer of their 

 food. 



The eye of a whale is about the size of an ox's eye, and situated in the liinder 

 part of the head on each side, and where the whale is broadest; for his head 

 tapers away forward from his eyes, and his body tapers away backward; his eyes 

 are more than half way his depth, or nearest his under-part; just under his eyes 

 are his two fins beforementioned; he carries his tail horizontally, and with that 

 he sculls himself along. 



The entrails of this whale are made and situated much like those of an ox, 

 and the scalp is sometimes found covered with thousands of sea-lice. One of 

 these whales has yielded 130 barrels of oil, and the tongue near 20. The 

 whalebone whale is the most valuable, excepting the sperma ceti whale. 



The scrag whale is near akin to the fin-back ; but instead of a fin on his 

 back, the ridge of the hinder part of his back is scragged with half a dozen 

 knobs; he is nearest the right whale in figure and for quantity of oil ; his bone 

 is white, but will not split. 



The finback whale is distinguished from tlie right whale, by having a large 

 fin on his back, from 2J- to 4 feet long. He has also two side fins, as the 



