37 1 Mr. Hunter’s Obfervations on the 
ffate fit for difle&ion. As they cannot live in air, we are 
unable to procure them alive. 
Some of thefe aquatic animals yielding fubffances which 
have become articles of traffic, and in quantity fufficient to 
render them valuable as objedls of profit, are fought after for 
that purpofe; but gain being the primary view, the refearches 
of the Naturalifl are only confidered as fecondary points, if 
confidered at all. At the befl, our opportunities of examining 
fuch animals do not often occur till the parts are in fuch a 
flate as to defeat the purpofes of accurate enquiry, and even 
thefe occafions are fo rare as to prevent our being able to fup- 
ply, by a fecond diffedtion, what was deficient in a firft. The 
parts of fuch animals being formed on fo large a fcale, is ano- 
ther caufe which prevents any great degree of accuracy in their 
examination ; more efpecially when it is confidered, how very 
inconvenient for accurate diffedtions are barges, open fields, 
and fuch places as are fit to receive animals, or parts, of fuch 
vaft bulk. 
As the opportunities of afcertaining the anatomical ffruc- 
ture of large marine animals are generally accidental, I have 
availed myfelf, as much as poffible, of all that have occurred ; 
and, anxious to get more extenfive information, engaged a Sur- 
geon, at a confiderable expence, to make a voyage to Greenland, 
in one of the ffiips employed in the whale fifhery, and fur- 
nifbed him with fuch neceffaries as I thought might be requi- 
lite for examining and preferving the more interefling parts, 
and with inffrudtions for making general obfervations ; but the 
only return I received for this expence was a piece of whale’s 
Ikin, with fome fmall animals flicking upon it. From the 
opportunities which I have had of examining different animals 
of this order, I have gained a tolerably accurate idea of the 
5 anatomical 
