20 
INTRODUCTORY 
whales, at all seasons of the year, accompanying the 
groups, or 6t schools 53 of females, wherever or at what- 
ever time they may be fallen in with : for an instance— 
if a ship on the Japan fishery or Bonin Islands, falls in 
with a “ school 55 of female whales in May, which is the 
first commencement of the fishing season, they are sure to 
see young sucking whales among them ; and if they also 
fall in with others of the same sex in the following 
August, September, or October, the young are also cer- 
tainly met with— thus demonstrating, that there is no 
particular time set apart by nature for the sexual inter- 
course of these animals, but that they meet at all seasons 
of the year : the same observations hold good at the New 
Guinea fishery, and from all the information that I can 
obtain, also at the “ Seychelle” and “ Timor 53 fisheries. 
The groups, herds, or 44 schools, which are formed by 
the sperm whale, are of two kinds firstly, by the 
females, which are accompanied by their young and one 
or two adult males ; and, secondly, by the young and 
half-grown males, but the large and fully grown males 
always go singly in search of food : but M. F. Cuvier 
lias conjectured, that when they are seen alone, that it is 
14 merely accidental, and not natural. 3 " His brother has 
also stated, that the left eye of the cachalot is much 
smaller than the other, so that fishermen attack him on 
that side, on which his vision is less perfect, in order to 
more readily elude his observation. Of the first of these 
remarks* I feel myself incompetent either to contradict, 
or confirm it positively ; but I can assert that I never 
saw a whaler prefer either side of the whale, but that 
