36 



or even to its great use iu liumau economy. We may, for 

 instance, without being very profound naturalists, admire its 

 truly mammal structure, disguised under the mask of a fish ; its 

 v^'ant of that symmetry which is so general in other vertebrated 

 animals ; its cup-like receptacle for the spermaceti which is to 

 obviate iu the ocean the enormous weight of such a mass of 

 skull ; its vertebrae locked into each other in two different ways, 

 both however adapted to combine the greatest strength with the 

 power of effecting the object to which any part of the spinal 

 column may be specially destined. We may, likewise, study the 

 delicate mechanism of the paddles, and the manner iu which the 

 hinder legs, so necessary to the other orders of Mammalia, here 

 disappear ; or we may compare the small and simple bones that 

 terminate the tail, with the accounts which whalers give us of 

 their stoutest boats being dashed to pieces by the powerful 

 cartilaginous flukes of which these weak bones form the axis. 

 But it is almost impossible to detail the various subjects for 

 meditation^ which the inspection of such a skeleton may suggest 

 to the minds of our visitors ; aud I shall, therefore, proceed to 

 the description of another cetacean animal of the sperm whale 

 family, which pre3ents,''_as I believe, a form new to naturalists. 



