12 
INTRODUCTORY 
whale, the baleen, and spouts from the top of the head, 
yet has a hump not very dissimilar to that of the sperm 
whale. 
So that they resemble each other in some respects, 
and differ so widely in other parts of their formation, 
and also in their habits, that they each necessarily 
belong to distinct classes of beings, and convince me, 
that they cannot properly be arranged in families, from 
the form or situation of their fins, humps, teeth, or 
baleen. However, it is not my intention, were it in 
my power, to enter into the inquiry as to the true 
method of dividing the cetacea into groups, families, 
genera, or species; but this I can assert in contradiction 
to Lacapede, and others of the foregoing authorities, 
that there is no more than one species of sperm whale, 
and this I say from having particularly noticed their 
external form, and also their manner and habits, in 
various parts of the world very distant from each other, 
yet I was never led to suppose for an instant, from their 
observance, that more than one species of this kind of 
whale exists. 
The large full-grown male, appeared the same in 
every part, from New Guinea to Japan, from Japan to 
the coast of Peru, from Peru to our own island ; while 
their females coincided in every particular, having their 
young ones among them in the same order, and appear- 
ing similar to all others which I had seen in every 
respect, merely differing a little in colour or fatness, 
according to the climate in which they were captured, 
as we had many opportunities of observing, as they were 
