16 



The immeuGG suout of our Sydney whale, like that of the 

 dolphins, is formed of the vomer on the middle line, with the 

 intermaxillaries on each side ; and again having the maxillaries 

 on the outside of all. The vomer is thicker at the base in the 

 Sydney whale than in the one figured by Cuvier, and moreover is 

 best distinguished in the middle line of the roof of the mouth. 

 The extension of the intermaxillaries beyond the maxillaries 

 forms the point of the snout. The nostrils are pierced in the 

 middle of the semicircular cavity mentioned above, at the root of 

 the vomer, and between the bases of the two intermaxillaries. 

 The nostril on the right side is scarcely one-fifth of the width 

 of the left nostril. The direction of both is obhque, and also 

 their position with reference to the line of the vomer. The base 

 of each iutermaxillary rises with a curvature on each side of the 

 nostrils, so as to form part of the bottom of that vast semi- 

 circular cavity on the back of the head, where is the principal 

 deposit of spermaceti. But the intermaxillary of the right side 

 reaches considerably further back than the left intermaxillary. 

 Indeed, a want of symmetry in the Catodontidcc generally, is 

 singularly conspicuous ; and in our whale, an organ on one side 

 scarcely ever agrees in size with its corresponding organ on the 

 other side. The left eye, for instance, as Cuvier says, is smaller 

 than the right one; — indeed, so small, as in Cuvier' s specimen, 

 to have almost escaped his observation. He says, moreover, that 

 fishermen are well aware of the advantage they possess in 

 attacking a sperm whale on its blind side. In like manner, on 

 my first inspection of the carcass in Neutral Bay, I could not 

 discover the left eye in our Sydney whale. This disappearance 

 of the left eye would appear to result from the extreme develop- 

 ment of the left nostril, for the purpose of forming the blow- 

 hole from which the animal spouts.* 



'^ There is every reason to believe that the Scotch whale, described by 

 Sir E. Sibbald, with forty-two teeth in the under jaw, was the Black fish, 

 Physetcr Tursio of Linnteus, and it is also, perhaps, although I confess I 

 have great doubts, the species of which Beale saw the skeleton in the posses- 

 sion of Sir Clifford Constable, in Yorkshire. Unfortunately, I am not able 



