35 



to be a coiisidera'ble fisliery of dugoug« so near to us as Moretou 

 Bay, naturalists are still ignorant wlietlier the Australian species 

 be the same with the dugong of Java and Sumatra. 



"We have now finished our survey of the bony structure 

 of the sperm whale of our Australian coast, and I think it has 

 been quite sufficient to enable us to decide that this species is 

 neither the same as Beale's Yorkshire whale nor yet as Cuvier's 

 London whale ; consequently that it is not the Catodon macro- 

 cephalus of Grray, that is, the common sperm whale of the 

 European seas. Whether it be the same species as the Pliysefer 

 Australls of Desmoulins — an apocryphal species, founded, as we 

 have seen, on a sketch made by the master of an English whaler 

 — may admit of doubt ; since no description, properly so called, 

 as yet exists of this last named species. I am inclined, indeed, 

 to believe that more than one species of the sperm whale will 

 hereafter be shown to live in these Southern Seas. Still, as the 

 epithet " Australis" is as applicable to our specimen as to any 

 other of the genus, it has been judged proper to name it Catodon 

 Australis, and I trust sufficient characters have been assigned 

 by which this species may hereafter be distinguished from all 

 others. 



The skeleton set up appears to excite considerable interest 

 among the curious of Sydney ; and it is to be hoped that the 

 foregoing observations will not merely serve to explain the 

 osseous fx'amework of a sperm whale, but also show the visitors 

 of our Museum that the inspection of these dry bones ought to 

 suggest to them reflections far more instructive than the vulgar 

 admiration of their prodigious size. According to Beale, 

 specimens are to be seen in the Pacific more than three times 

 the size of this individual ; and nevertheless, Madame de Stael's 

 observation ought ever to be borne in mind : " Le plus foihle 

 atome est un monde et le monde peutetre oi'est qiCun atomey 

 Thus, the practised observer of nature knows that the smallest 

 organisation may offer as complex a subject for curious study as 

 the largest ; and that an interest may attach itself to the sperm 

 whale quite distinct from that due to its enormous dimensions, 



