THE SHAPE OF WHALES 381 



" Pelorus Jack " by name for five years, and any person 

 interfering with him was made liable to a fine of ;^ioo. 



It appears. that under the New Zealand Sea Fisheries 

 Act of 1 894 the Governor in Council is empowered to 

 make regulations protecting any fish. Although zoologi- 

 cally not belonging to the class of fishes, whales are, 

 technically and for all legal and commercial purposes, 

 " fishes," since they are " fished " and are the booty of 

 " fisheries." I believe that no Governor, Council, or 

 Secretary of State has power in the British Islands 

 similar to that conferred on the Governor of New Zealand 

 by a modern State which desires good and effective 

 government. Such power is needed in all parts of the 

 British Empire. 



The whales, as compared with their dog-like ancestors, 

 are modified to a more extreme degree and in more special 

 ways than is the case in any other group of which we can 

 trace the history over a similar period of development. 

 This is connected with the complete change of conditions 

 of life to which these mammals (" warm-blooded, air- 

 breathing quadrupeds which suckle their young ") have 

 become adapted in passing from a terrestrial to a marine 

 existence. Other mammalian ancestors have indepen- 

 dently taken to a marine life and given rise to stranger 

 looking adaptations, namely, the seals and also the 

 Manatee and Dugong known as the Sirenians (so-called 

 because they give rise to sailors' stories of mermaids and 

 sirens), but these are far less changed, less modified than 

 the whales. The whales have acquired a completely fish- 

 like form. They frequently have a large back fin, and 

 have lost the hind legs altogether. The horizontally 

 spread flukes of the whale's tail have nothing to do with 

 the hind legs, whereas the common seal's hind legs are 

 tied together so as to form 9. sort of tail.. In the tiggef 

 whales, sunk deep in the muscle and blubber, we find, on 



