or CETACEOUS FISHE3. $§ 



individual propagates only with thofe of its own kind ; 

 and without mixture of breed, they tranfmit an unpol- 

 luted race to poflerity. When they are feen in flioals of 

 different kinds together, or making their migrations in 

 large companies from one ocean to another, their objedt 

 probably is fecurity and mutual defence. Hardly any 

 inftinft lefs powerful than that of felf prefervation, from 

 the attacks of fmaller but more powerful fifties, could in- 

 duce them to an union by which the fcarcity of food rouft 

 be fo greatly increafed- 



Section II. 



*2be Common Whale*» 



-I HIS is the largefl: animal known. In the north fea 

 where it is mofl frequently taken, itmeafures from nine- 

 ty to an hundred feet in length j and there is reafon to 

 believe that before the fiftiery had committed fuch vaft 

 depredations, there were many of this fpecies feen of a 

 far fuperior fize f . In the warmer latitudes where they 

 are lefs frequently taken, and confequently have time to 

 gain their full fize, they are (till feen of the immenfe fize 

 of an hundred and fixty feet ; a circumftance which feems 

 to beftow credibility upon the relations of ancient wri- 

 ters. 



Though 



• Balena, Rondelet. Willough. Ichtht La Balclne ordinaire, Briflba. 

 I Britifli Zool. Clafs iv. Gen. i, 



