64 COMMON WHALE. Class IV. 



as far as we recollect, they were ignorant of 

 their uses as well as capture. Aldrovand* 

 indeed describes from Oppian, what he mis- 

 takes for whale fishing; but he was deceived 

 by the word xyros, which is used not only to 

 express whale in general, but any great fish. 

 The poet here meant the shark, and shews the 

 way of taking it, in the very manner practised at 

 present, by a strong hook baited with flesh. He 

 describes too its three-fold row of teeth, a cir- 

 cumstance that at once disproves its being a 

 whale : 



Asivss xavXloSovlx; dvcctSsag rjvt axovlas, 

 Tgnrt'oi^si tfepuouras irfc(,<r(rvT£gr)<riv cLkcjuxxi;. 



Halieut. V. lin. 526. 



Whose dreadful teeth in triple order stand, 

 Like spears out of his mouth. 



The whale, though so bulky an animal, swims 

 with vast swiftness, and generally against the 

 wind. 



It brings only two young at a time, as we 

 believe is the case with all other whales. 



Its food consists chiefly of the medusa or sea 

 blubber, and other Mollusca. 



The great resort of this species is within the 

 arctic circle, but they sometimes visit our coasts. 

 Whether this was the British whale of the an- 



* DfiCetis. 261. 



