12 A HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERIES 



from which the above quotation is taken. But 

 since zoological knowledge is not so generally 

 distributed as zoological specialists imagine, it may 

 be well, even at the risk of being thought plati- 

 tudinous, to recapitulate some of the leading 

 characteristics of the order Cetacea. 



Whales, porpoises and dolphins are mammals or, 

 in the popular acceptation of the term, animals and 

 not fish, that is to say they belong to that class of the 

 animal kingdom which is characterised (among 

 other things) by being warm-blooded, by having a 

 prolonged organic connection between the mother 

 and the unborn young, by the suckling of the young 

 after birth, by the possession of hair and by a high 

 brain development. 



Among mammals, whales are further distin- 

 guished by their fish-like body, the absence of a 

 distinct neck, by the reduction of the fore-limbs to 

 the form of paddles or flukes, by the absence of 

 externally visible hind limbs, by the presence of a 

 thick layer of fat (blubber) immediately beneath the 

 skin serving to retain the heat of the body, by the 

 opening of the nostrils near the vertex of the head 

 instead of at the tip of the snout. In nearly all 

 Cetacea there is a median dorsal tegumentary fin. 

 The eyes are small and there is no external ear. 

 The bones are spongy, the cavities filled with 

 oil. The brain-case is nearly spherical; teeth are 

 generally present, but in one group in the foetal 

 condition only. 



The larynx is of peculiar shape, being elongated 



