Of CETACEOUS FISHES. £€ 



Emong the mod fortunate circumflances of therr wretched 

 lives. They make their abode belide it j and feldom re- 

 move till they have left nothing but the bones*. In the 

 days of Willoughhy, the eating whale was growing into 

 difufe in England f ; and at preient the Butch i'ailors, as 

 well as our own, will not tafte it except in c.fes of ur- 

 gent neceflity : it is faid, however, that the French fea- 

 men frequently drefs and ufe it as their ordinary food at 

 •fea. The wretched inhabitants of the ifland of Feroe^ 

 who live one half of the year on faked gulls, are alfo, 

 we are told, very fond of fnlted whales flefh : the fat of 

 the head, after being well feafoned, they hang up in the 

 chimney, and eat like bacoa J. 



The internal llrudure of the whale we have already 

 semarked, refembles almoft in every refpe£l that of qua- 

 drupeds : Like them they poflefs lungs, a bilocular 

 heart, a diaphragm and urinary bladder. The precife 

 fliape and fituation of the vifcera of thefe animals is in- 

 deed far from being fo exaSly afccrtained as might have 

 •been expected, from the trcquent opportunity there is af- 

 forded of examining them. In thofe parts where they 

 are caught in greatefl abundance, the failors are not very 

 curious in inquiring into the ftrudlurc of the parts ; and 

 few anatomills care to undertake a talk, where the ope- 

 rator, inftead of feparating with a lancet muft cut his way 

 with an ax j]. It is therefore not yet known whether the 

 whale has not one of its bowels entirely adapted for the 

 reception of air, in order to fupply it with that fluid, 

 when it is obliged to continue longer than ufual below 

 G a the 



* Goldfmith's Nat. Hift. 



•} Duram habent carneiu eetacea omnia ; quatnolrcm \ififis/uL conditls fvrt ii 



clils utimur. Liber, ii. cap, i, 

 i Jacobfon's Hiil. of Fcroe. || Gcldfmith's Nat. lii/l. 



