366 THE GREAT UNKNOWN. 



rally from fifty to three hundred fathoms' depth of water 

 within a boat's length of the shore. How could a carcase 

 or a skeleton be cast up here, even if it floated ? 



But, secondly, as to facts. Is it true, that of all the 

 larger oceanic animals we find the carcases or skeletons 

 cast up on the shore ? Is it true even of the Cetacea, 

 whose blubber-covered bodies invariably ensure their 

 floating, and whose bones are so saturated with oil that 

 they are but little heavier than water ? 



In September, 1825, a cetacean was stranded on the 

 French coast which was previously unknown to natural- 

 ists. It was so fortunate as to fall under the examina- 

 tion of so eminent an zoologist as De Blainville ; and hence 

 its anatomy was well investigated. It has become cele- 

 brated as the Toothless Whale of Havre (Aodon Dalei). 

 Yet no other example of this species is on record; and, 

 but for this accident, a whale inhabiting the British 

 Channel would be quite unrecognised. 



Of another whale (Diodon Sowerbyi), likewise British, 

 our entire knowledge rests on a single individual which 

 was cast on shore on the Elgin coast, and was seen and 

 described by the naturalist Sowerby. 



There is a species of sperm-whale (Physeter tursio) 

 affirmed to be frequently seen about the Shetland Islands ; 

 a vast creature of sixty feet in length, and readily dis- 

 tinguishable from all other Cetacea by its lofty dorsal, 

 and, according to old Sibbald, by other remarkable pe- 

 culiarities in its anatomy. Yet no specimen of this huge 

 creature has fallen under modern scientific ohservation ; 



