57 



Middle Bone — Longest side 



Opposite side to same . . . . 



Shortest or triquetral side 



Opposite side to same . . . . 

 Exterior bone — Articulating side 



Longest side 



Curved side 



Shortest side 



We have thus passed in review the several parts o£ a cetacean 

 whose bony structure comes very near that of the common sperm 

 whale. Nevertheless, its external form demonstrates how little 

 importance is to be attached to most of those characters which 

 have been hitherto considered by Lacepede, Cuvier, and other 

 great zoologists, to be ordinate. Here, for instance, we have a 

 sperm whale, with a short moderately sized head, and a de- 

 pressed snout like that of a dolphin, with a dolphin's falcate 

 dorsal fin, and single blowhole situated in the middle of the head, 

 at the base of the pnout. As for the want of teeth in the 

 upper jaw, it has already been shown to be common among 

 dolphins. 



The discovery of the Eupliysetes Orayii is useful in many 

 respects. It shows the error of the two brothers Cuvier in dis- 

 crediting the existence of the black fish of the northern hemis- 

 sphere ; it shows the mistake of Professor Bell in assigning the 

 black fish of our whalers to the same genus as the common sperm 

 whale ; it shows, at the same time, the accuracy of the ancient 

 descriptions of the black fish by Sir Eobert Sibbald and Otho 

 Fabricius* ; and finally, the shrewdness of Mr. Grray, in eliciting 



* It is very possible, nay, probable, that the black fish of Otho Fabricius 

 is a different species from that of Sir R. Sibbald, particularly if it be true 

 that the former has only 22 teeth in all ; for the latter has 21 teeth on each 

 side of under jaw, making 42 in all. 



