206 NATURE AND WOODCRAFT. 



an economical standpoint the natural order 

 Cetacea is the most important which haunts the 

 seas. Owing to the element in which they 

 live, to migration, and to their invariably 

 keeping to deep water, the life-history of the 

 great Cetaceans is difficult to follow. Those 

 engaged in the Whaling industry of the northern 

 seas, and travellers in the same quarters, have 

 taught us much of certain species, and very 

 little of others. The first are those which are 

 most abundant or yield the greatest amount of 

 blubber ; the second, the rarer forms, whose lives 

 are led far out in the deep waters, or such as 

 make but little return for chase or capture. 



There are but few creatures which show 

 more admirably their adaption to environment. 

 Fitted as it is for an essentially acquatic exist- 

 ence, and spending its whole time in the water, 

 it is not surprising that the ancients invari- 

 ably classed whales with fishes. The old natu- 

 ralists, however, were well aware that the 

 young were brought forth alive, like those of 

 the rest of the mammalia, and that they were 

 nourished by the usual mammary organs. 



The main physical features of the whale are its 

 distorted jaws, with upward-directed nostrils, 



