498 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



clators, we might suppose that a considerable number of 

 writers had observed and described Balsenae with bosses, one 

 or two on the back instead of a fin. We find, however, 

 that the beings called in catalogues Balcena Gibbosa, and 

 Balcena Nodosa, rest only on a few equivocal lines of Dud- 

 ley's, in the Philosophical Transactions. It is impos- 

 sible, from what is there said, to say that the first is not 

 a Rorqual. We also know how easily the Cetacea lose, 

 by accident, all or parts of their dorsal fin ; we can well con- 

 ceive that those species, of which no naturalist has spoken 

 since, may depend only on individual alterations. 



" We have seen how incomplete and confined are yet the 

 notions we have on the various Balaense. I am far, how- 

 ever, from pretending that their species are reducible to 

 the number I have here characterized. These animals 

 have been too little observed, to allow us to believe that 

 they have been all described. We know not if the Whales 

 of the Pacific are the same as those of the Atlantic. Lace- 

 pede, after drawings made in Japan, has described several, 

 which, if the figures be correct, are probably distinct 

 species. All I could wish by this exposition of my doubts, 

 is to prevent naturalists from assuming as definitions what 

 are really not so, and registering imaginary species in 

 systems of nature as if they really existed, and to prevent 

 navigators from supposing that their endeavours are no 

 longer wanting to the furtherance of this branch of 

 science." 



END OF THE CLASS MAMMALIA. 



