OS" FISHES IN GENERAI,. 



view, vindicate their arrangement among quadrupeds. 

 Their internal ftrudure agrees, in every refpe£l, with 

 that of the mammalia quadrupedia of Liniutus ; and their 

 external conformation alfo is, in feme parts, fimilar. ' 



The ^.etaceous fifhes are deftitute of gills ; Thej breathe 

 by means of lung^, and, on that account, are obliged to 

 rife frequently to the furface of the water for refpira- 

 tion *. They refemble land animah too in having warm 

 blood i in being pi'ovided with external organs of ge- 

 neration; and in their manner of copulating and bring- 

 ing forth their young, which they fuckle, and protecl: 

 with parental attachment. They have the power of 

 uttering founds f , fuch as of bellowing and making 

 other noifes ; a faculty denied to the other inhabitants of 

 the deep. 



But notwithftanding this flriking fimilaritj between 

 the cetaceous fifhes, and the land animals, there are many 

 other properties belonging to the former, which mull de- 

 termine us to rank them among fiflies, where the ge- 

 neral voice and language of men have always placed 

 them. Thejeals, manati and whales, are evidently the 

 ileps, by which Nature proceeds from the one of thefe 

 her great families to the other : Here they approximate, 

 and appear kindred tribes. In the laft of thefe fpecies of 

 animals however, the great outlines and form of a fifh 

 predominate : It is entirely naked, or covered with a 

 fmooth Ikin j it lives wholly in the water, and has all the 

 actions and habits of its aquatic neighbours f. 



It is with much greater confidence and facility, that 

 we reftore to their original Hation, the cartilaginous, 



fifhes ; 



* VUt Britifh Zoology. •}• Blafiis Anat. AnimaL a88. 



i Vide Rail Synop, Pifc, 



