63 



Family CATODONTIDJE. 



Upper surface of massive skull concave for tlie reception of 

 spermaceti. Nostrils enormously disproportionate in size, the 

 left one being tlie largest, and the nasal bones as well as those of 

 the face generally, being thereby unsymmetrical and distorted. 

 Blow-hole externally single. (In all?) Branches of the toothed 

 lower jaw united in front by a long symphysis, which is always 

 considerably narrower than the toothless U2:)per jaw. Teeth of 

 under jaw conical, hollow like those of a crocodile, and fitting 

 into cavities formed in the gum of the upper jaw. 



It has been more hastily conceded than truly said, that the age 

 of large animals has passed away — that in those prse- Adamite 

 eras of time which form the principal subject of geological study, 

 the vis crcatrix acted if not more complexly, at least on a larger 

 scale than at present — that the Megalosaurus, for instance, was 

 larger than the Mastodon, and the 3Iastodon again, larger than 

 any animal production of our own degenerate time. Many enthu- 

 siastic admirers of the world's infancy, therefore, appear to have 

 overlooked the actual existence of an order of mammals which, 

 according to geological evidence appeared first on the face of our 

 globe so lately as since the cretacean period. Yet this order now 

 is apparently as numerous in species as in any previous aera, and 

 contains in it tho living great northern rorqual {JBalcenoptera 

 physahis of Gray) an animal larger than any extinct geological 

 species known, and probably the very " Baloena Britannica" 

 which Juvenal fixed on as his standard of cetacean hugeness. 



If our earth be trodden at present by no mammal so large as 

 the Mastodon of North America, nor by any bird so huge as the 

 Deinornis or moa of New Zealand, their disappearance is 

 obviously so recent, that there is little difficulty in supposing that 

 the extirpation of such species may be owing to the hand of 

 man. Indeed the various species of the animal kingdom seem to be 

 in danger of violent extinction in direct proportion to their size. 

 The increase of this renders them in general less ferocious com- 

 pared with other species. A porpoise, that is, the least of known 

 Cetacea, is exceedingly voracious ; but a sperm whale (whether 



