308 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 178/. 



was white, shaded ofFinto the dark colour of the back. This species is described 

 by Dale, in his Antiquities of Harwich. The one which I examined must have 

 been young ; for I have a skull of the same kind nearly 3 times as large, which 

 must have belonged to an animal 30 or 40 feet long. Of the balaena rostrata of 

 Fabricius, I had one, 1 7 feet long. The balaena mysticetus, or large whalebone 

 whale, the physeter macrocephalus, or spermaceti whale, and the monodon mo- 

 noceros, or narwhale, have also fallen under my inspection. Some of these I 

 have had opportunities of examining with accuracy ; while others I have only 

 examined in part, the animals having been too long kept before I procured them, 

 to admit of more than a very superficial inspection. 



From these circumstances it will be readily supposed, that an accurate descrip- 

 tion of all the different species is not to be expected ; but having acquired a ge- 

 neral knowledge of the whole tribe, from the different species which have come 

 under my examination, I have been enabled to form a tolerable idea, even of parts 

 which I have only had the opportunity of seeing in a very cursory way. General 

 observation would lead us to believe^ that the whole of this tribe constitutes one 

 order of animals, which naturalists have subdivided into genera and species ; but 

 a deficiency in the knowledge of their economy has prevented them from making 

 these divisions with sufficient accuracy ; and this is not surprising, since the 

 genera and species are still in some measure undetermined even in animals with 

 which we are better acquainted. 



The animals of this order are in size the largest known, and probably there- 

 fore the fewest in number of all that live in water. Size, I believe, in those ani- 

 mals who feed on others, is in some proportion to the number of the smaller ; 

 but I believe this tribe varies more in that respect than any we know, viewing it 

 from the whalebone whale, which is 70 or 80 feet long, to the porpoise that is 

 5 or 6 : however, if they differ as much among themselves as the salmon does 

 from the sprat, there is not that comparative difference in size that would at first 

 appear. The whalebone whale is, I believe, the largest ; the spermaceti whale 

 the next in size (the one which I examined, though not full grown, was about 6o 

 feet long) ; the Grampus, which is an extensive genus, is probably from 20 to 

 50 feet long ; under this denomination there is a number of species. 



From my want of knowledge of the different genera of this tribe of animals, an 

 incorrectness in the application of the anatomical account to the proper genus 

 may be the consequence ; for when they are of a certain size, they are brought 

 to us as porpoises ; when larger, they are called grampus, or fin-fish. A tolerably 

 correct anatomical description of each species, with an accurate drawing of the 

 external form, would lead us to a knowledge of the different genera, and the 

 species in each ; and, in order to forward so useful a work, I propose, at some 

 future period, to lay before the Society descriptions and drawings of those which 



