MAMMIFEROUS ANIMALS. 411 



cumstance, which admitting its comparative mag- 

 nitude to other animals, appears still to be 

 almost incredible 



Ev r ery other part of this Whale is upon the 

 same magnificent scale. For the heart is so large, 

 as scarcely to be contained in a deep wide tub. 

 The vertebrae, or joints of the back bone, present 

 the diameter of moderately sized barrels. The ribs 

 and jaw bones are often used to form lofty arched 

 gate ways. The tail, (which contrary to the com- 

 mon fish, lies horizontal,) is more than twenty 

 feet broad, and so powerful as to be able to shat- 

 ter a large canoe to pieces *ith one single stroke. 

 The cleft of the mouth is from ten to twenty feet 

 in length; while the tongue, is in itself capable 

 of furnishing several hogsheads of blubber; 

 and as the head forms nearly one third of 

 the animal's bulk, and furnishes, in propor- 

 tion, the largest quantity of oil; this, with the 

 whalebone, supplied (as before stated ) from the 

 upper jaw, renders it equally valuable with 

 the still greater bulk of the body, though 

 thickly covered with blubber; a provision 

 of nature apparently for the purpose of preserving 

 the internal viscera from the action of the cooler 

 temperature of the sea, (the Whale having no 

 hair like the land quadruped, or scales like 

 most other fish, as an external covering,) and 

 of giving buoyancy in the water to a body of such 

 immense bulk. 



