LECTURE II. 10^ 



and solitary, whilst the whale tribe have an 

 opposite character. The porpoises accom- 

 pany our ships on the voyage, and they 

 say the dolphin has been known to come 

 to the shore when called for food he had 

 been accustomed to receive ; observations 

 and stories of this kind may have formed 

 the basis of different poetical fictions. 



For so monstrous a creature as the great 

 whale, when thus constructed to obtain a 

 supply of food for its vast bulk, would 

 appear to us, were we ignorant of the 

 means which nature has contrived, a sub- 

 ject of the greatest difficulty. But she has 

 made his mouth an enormous trap, and has 

 given him whalebone teeth, the fringed 

 edges of which form a finely meshed net 

 to encompass his prey. We must suppose 

 him groping along the bottom of the ocean, 

 his jaws extended, his mouth a vast cham- 

 ber, twenty or thirty feet in length, and ten 

 or twelve in breadth, filled with water, 

 containing medusae, sepise, shrimps and 

 small fish, when gently closing his jaws, 



