68, THE CACFIALOT. 



iy pounds weiglit, and never above four in the fame fifh. 

 Thcfe balls of ambergris, the purpofes of which, in 

 medicine and perfumes, are fo well known, are not in- 

 difcriminatcly found in every fifh : it is only the oldeil 

 and ilrongefl: that yield it in any confiderable quantity. 



"The Blunt Headed Cachalot*, 



1 HIS fpecles fometimes vifits the coafls of Britain : A 

 dead one w^as caft afhore near Edhihurgh in the year 

 1769, which meafured fifty- four feet, from the mouth 

 to ilie tail ; and its greatefl circumference Was thirty 

 feet f . 



Tlie head cf this animal is of an enormous fize, far 

 exceeding the proportions of the whale. The upper jaw 

 projefls five feet beyond the lower ; and its length is a- 

 bout fifteen feet, the other being only ten. Near the 

 fnout, which is quite blunr, and near nine feet high, 

 is placed that orifice peculiar to the cetaceous order, by 

 which they fpout the wv.tcr. The lower jaw is armed 

 with forty-fix teeth, all pointing outward to meet the 

 fockets, where they enter Into the upper. The teeth 

 are about feven inches in circumference at the bottom, 

 fliarpening as you approach the top ; they are all bent, 

 and like the teeth of the oth«r cetaceous fiflies, they are 



•white, 



* Le cachalot a dents en faucilles. Eiiffcn. Fhyfitcr. Microps. Lin. Syft. 

 •f Biiiilh Zcclcgy, clafs iv. gen. 3. 



