THE NARWAL. 67 



darker spots, naming into each otler, and forming a dusky black surfacx- , v.,-1, film *nd more open 

 spots of gray on a white ground at the sides, which spots disappear altogether on the belly. Such in the 

 velocity of this animal and' the impetus of its course, that it lias been known to plunge its tusk 

 through the side of a vessel, which has been snapped of]' in the timbers by the vi,,l, ,,., ,,f the 

 blow. It is often called the sea unicorn. 



The fourth genus* comprehends creatures of huge bulk, which pursue their prey, con^m,;: of seals 

 and large fishes, with a rapacity rarely equalled. The head is of prodigious size; the upper j;i 

 no teeth ; but the lower jaw, of enormous weight and solidity, fits into a groove in the upper, mid haa 

 a range of short cylindrical or conical teeth on each side, received into corresponding cavities in the 

 upper jaw, the gum of which is exceedingly hard and callous. The higher portion of the skull consists 

 of a series of large cavities, filled with a clear, oleaginous fluid, which hardens on cooling, and is known 

 under the name of spermaceti, but more properly adipocire. 



THE CACHALOT.f 



THIS animal is often called the Spermaceti Whale ; it nppears to be widely diffused ; it has been known 

 to occur in the Adriatic, and it has several times been captured on our British coasts ; but it is 

 principally found in the Polar Ocean of both hemispheres. The heart of one captured in Whitstable 

 Bay measured three feet across. The total length of the Cachalot was sixty-three feet, and the 

 circumference around the body thirty-six. In some instances, it is said to be a hundred feet long. 



The last genus J includes 



THE COMMON, OE GREENLAND WHALE. 



The lower jaw of the cachalots is provided with conical teeth ; but the upper jaw of the Whale, 

 shaped like a boat reversed, has along the two sides long, sub-triangular, transverse lamina', of a horny 

 substance, called baleen, or whalebone, set in close array. These plates, to the number of eight or nine 

 hundred on each side, with the broad end fixed to the gum, and the apex to the middle of the palate, 

 have a fringed edge, loose and floating ; they begin small, but increase to ten feet in length, and then 

 diminish gradually. The lower jaw, with no such apparatus, contains a thick, fleshy tongue, and is 

 arched outwards so as to embrace these fringed plates, and, when the mouth is shut, form a kind of 

 strainer, so as to detain the little creatures on which the whale feeds. The whale is sometimes seen 

 as represented in the engraving on th next page, stranded on the sea-shore. 



The whale is now seldom found more than seventy feet in length ; it was far larger when suffered 

 by man to live till maturity. The use of whalebone is familiar to all ; its blubber is many feet in 

 thickness, and yields from seventy to a hundred ban-els of oil. The flesh of the young whale is of a 

 red colour, and, when broiled, and seasoned with pepper and salt, eats like coarse beef. Besides forming 

 a choice eatable, the inferior products of the whale are applied to other purposes by the Indians and 

 Esquimaux of arctic countries, and, with some nations, are essential to their comfort. .Some mem- 

 branes of the abdomen are used for an upper article of clothing, and the peritoneum, in particular, 

 being thin and transparent, is used instead of glass in the windows of their huts ; the bone 

 converted into harpoons and spears for striking the seal, or darting at the sea-birds, and are uUo 

 employed in the construction of their boats or tents ; the sinews are divided into filaments, and used 

 as thread, with which they join the seams of their boats and tent-cloths, and sew, with great ni 

 the articles of dress they manufacture. 



Here, then, we close our view of the Mammalia. In the structure of these exceedingly divt : 

 creatures, in the modifications of organs for special purposes, in the harmony of the largest with the 

 most minute part, and in instincts perfectly adapted to their respective modes of lite, we have abundant 

 proofs of Divine wisdom, power, and goodness. W T ell, then, may we say with the inspired Psalmist : 



* Physeter: Linnteus. t Phjseler macrocephalu". \ Balccna: B. mysticnus: Linnnus. 



