MAMMALIA. 
39 
l ^ Vrof . Owen (Trans. Zool. Soc. 1866 , pp. 17-47^ pis. 3-14) 
/has published an account of Indian Cetaceans observed and 
/ collected by Sir Walter Elliot in the vicinity of Vizagapatam. 
/ This gentleman, who never lost an opportunity of advancing our 
/ knowledge of the natural history of India, had drawings made 
/ of the fresh animals, preserving the skulls. The species exa- 
; mined by Prof Owen will be mentioned subsequently, but here 
/ appears to be the place to refer to some general remarks with 
j which the author concludes his memoir : — 
i All tlio cetacean characters are gradational, exemplifying steps by which 
I are gained the extreme modifications, especially in the skull and dentition. 
I The formation of germs of teeth in jaws of foetal or young individuals of 
\ species which are edentulous in the full-grown individuals is amongst the 
i most significant of the gradational modifications, being due to deviations in 
i offspring from the characters of parents. Such departures or variations may 
i have been slight in the first instance, few and far between in the members of 
1 a contemporary generation j but, occurring in the course of many generations, 
through long lapse of time, they might lead to ^^long-snouted ” and ^^short- 
' snouted” breeds. In such conjectural mutations of specific characters may 
be discerned a fore-ordained law of deviation from primitive type .... and 
they seem to be independent of external influences. The ocean has none of 
those diversities of condition which the dry land shows .... So far the 
species may be held as evidences of orderly succession and progression due to 
inherent organic force, operating according to a natural law or “ secondary 
cause ” of the precise nature of which we are yet in ignorance. Put we may 
feel assured that the Power which called into being the first cetacean type 
foreknew and planned, by predetermined degrees and kinds of departure from 
that type, all its subsequent modifications. 
The collection of Scandinavian Memoirs by Eschricht, Rein- 
hardt, and Lilljeborg, translated into English for the Ray So- 
ciety, and edited by Mr. Eloaver, has been noticed above (p. 2) . 
*4 Hr. G. O. Sars enumerates, in his paper on Balanoptera 
musculus (see above, p. 11), the following Cetacea from the Lo- 
foten Islands : — Balamoptcra musculus, Ilushvalcn/^ a species 
not yet determined ; Bal. gigas, rostrata, laticeps ; Megaptera 
longimana, physetes, macrocephalus \ Grampus gladiator and 
melas ; Hyperoodon rostratus ; Dclph. tursio and Phocaena com~ 
munis. At the conclusion of his paper he refers to the contra- 
dictory statements of naturalists Avith regard to the ejection of 
water from the blowholes of these animals. Pie states that if the 
head Avith the blowhole is raised above the surface of the Avater, 
nothing but air is expelled ; but if, at the moment of exspira- 
tion, the head is still below the surface of the water, the force of 
the air expelled carries a portion of the water with it, causing a 
more or less perceptible spray. 
Bhytina boi'calis. Prof. v. Brandt again directs attention to the almost un- 
deniable fact that Wiytina is extinct. Bull. Ac. Sc. St. Pdtersb. ix. pp. 270- 
282 (Mdl. Biol. V. p. 363). Dr. v. Eichwald, in a reply to Prof. v. Brandt, 
