VOL. LXXVII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 307 



distant seas, which no one explores in pursuit of natural history ; neither can they 

 be brought to us alive from thence, which prevents our receiving their bodies in a 

 state fit for dissection. As they cannot live in air, we are unable to procure 

 them alive. 



Some of these aquatic animals yielding substances which have become articles 

 of traffic, and in quantity sufficient to render them valuable as objects of profit, 

 are sought after for that purpose; but gain being the primary view, the researches 

 of the naturalist are only considered as secondary points, if considered at all. At 

 the best, our opportunities of examining such animals do not often occur till the 

 parts are in such a state as to defeat the purposes of accurate inquiry, and even 

 these occasions are so rare as to prevent our being able to supply, by a 2d dis- 

 section, what was deficient in a first. The parts of such animals being formed 

 on so large a scale, is another cause which prevents any great degree of accuracy 

 in their examination ; more especially when it is considered, how very inconvenient 

 for accurate dissections are barges, open fields, and such places as are fit to re- 

 ceive animals or parts of such vast bulk. 



As the opportunities of ascertaining the anatomical structure of large marine 

 animals are generally accidental, I have availed myself, as much as possible, of all 

 that have occurred ; and, anxious to get more extensive information, engaged a 

 surgeon, at a considerable expense, to make a voyage to Greenland, in one of 

 the ships employed in the whale fishery, and furnished him with such necessaries 

 as I thought might be requisite for examining and preserving the more interest- 

 ing parts, and with instructions for making general observations ; but the only 

 return I received for this expense was a piece of whale's skin, with some small 

 animals sticking upon it. From the opportunities I have had of examining dif- 

 ferent animals of this order, I have gained a tolerably accurate idea of the anato- 

 mical structure of some genera, and such a knowledge of the structure of parti- 

 cular parts of some others, as to enable me to ascertain the principles of their 

 economy. 



Those which I have had opportunities of examining were the following : Of the 

 delphinus phocaena, or porpoise, I have had several, both male and female. Of 

 the grampus I have had 2 ; one of them 24 feet long, the belly of a white colour, 

 which terminated at once, the sides and back being black ; the other about 18 

 feet long, the belly white, but less so than in the former, and shaded off into the 

 dark colour of the back. Of the delphinus delphis, or bottle-nose whale, I had 

 one sent to me by Mr. Jenner*, surgeon, at Berkeley. It was about 11 feet 

 long. I have also had one 21 feet long, resembling this last in the shape of the 

 head, but of a different genus, having only 2 teeth in the lower jaw ; the belly 



* Now Dr. Jenner, the discoverer of vaccination. 

 RR2 



