48 OF CETACEOUS FISHES. 



fliarp teeth, thefe animals when they furrovuici a whale 

 feldom. allow it to come oiT with life. They tear and 

 mangle its fleih on all fides, till fatigued with fighting, 

 and overcome with wounds, it falls a prey at lafl to their 

 fury ; and after it exjjires, the tongue is extraded, the 

 only part which they devour. 



By the conftaflt hoftilities of thefe various animals, the 

 race of whales has probably been gradually diminifiiing 

 in number for feveral ages *. From the largenefs of their 

 fize they cannot e?Si\j be concealed from their deitroyers ; 

 and as they are diitinguifhed by fterility among the finny 

 tribes, their deftruction cannot foon be repaired : But of 

 all the caufes of the wafle and diminution of this order 

 of fiflies, the interference of man has operated by far 

 the moft powerfully. His hoftilitics has been incompara- 

 bly more fatal than thofe of all the rell of their enemies ; 

 and a greater number is probably dellroyed in a feafon 

 by the ingenuity of the filliermen, than is devoured by 

 the rapacious animals in an age. 



The inhofpitable fhores of Spitzhergen were found to 

 be the great reiort of the whales ; and for more than three 

 centuries, notwithftanding the coldnefs of the climate, 

 and the terrors of the icy fea, a great number of Euro- 

 pean iliips have annually frequented thofe dreary abodes, 

 and at length thinned the number of their inhabitants. 



The whale filhery was carried on, for the fake of the 

 oil, long before the ufe of whale bone was difcovered f. 

 The fubftance which has obtained that name, adheres to 

 the upper jaw ; and is formed of thin parallel laminse, 

 fome of the longell four yards in length. Of thefe there 



are 



2 



* Vide Brit. Zoo'ogv, Clafs. iy. Gcpus. J. 

 t Vide Anderfoii's Did. vol. i. p. 44?, 



