PHYSETERIDuE. 



CETACEA. PHYSETERIDM. 



Fig. 217. 



Fossil tooth, 5 nat. size, of Cachalot, newer pliocene, Essex. 



PHYSETER MACROCEPHALUS. Cachalot, or 

 Sperm Whale. 



Cachalot, OWEN, Report of British Association, 1842, p. 18. 



THE evidence of the existence of the Great Sperm 

 Whale, or Cachalot, in European seas at the period when 

 the mammoth and other now extinct mammalia trod the 

 adjoining 1 shores, is precisely of the same nature as that 

 previously adduced for the contemporaneous existence of 

 the Narwhal, viz., the discovery of a fossil tooth, absorbent 

 from the loss of animal matter, and with its substance 

 separating into concentric layers, in the superficial deposits 

 near the coast of Essex. Fig. 217 gives a side-view of 

 this tooth, which is now in my possession, and fig. 218 

 is a view of a longitudinal section of a recent Cachalot's 

 tooth, to show the characteristic proportions of c, the 

 cement ; d, the dentine ; and o, the osteodentine, which 

 substances enter into the composition of the Cachalot's 



