Structure and Oeconomy of Whales. 429 
which, 1 believe, is peculiar to the large and imall Whale- 
bone Whales. 
\ 
Although it is non the external air which they infpire that 
produces fmell, 1 believe it is the air retained in the noflril 
out of the current of refpiration, which bv being impregnated 
with the odoriferous particles contained in the water during the 
aft of blowing, is applied to the organ of fmell. It might be 
fuppofed, that they could fmell the air on the furface of the 
water by every infpiration, as animals do on land ; and pro- 
bably they may : but this will not give them the power to 
fmell the odoriferous particles of their prey in the water at any 
depth ; and as their organ is not fitted to be affeded by the ap- 
plication of water, and as they cannot fuck water into the noflril, 
without the danger of its palling into the lungs, it cannot 
be by its application to this organ that they are enabled to fmell. 
Some have the power of throwing the water from the mouth 
through the noflril, and with fuch force as to raife it thirty 
feet high: this muft anfwer fome important purpofe, although 
not immediately evident to us. 
As the organ appears to be formed to fmell air only, and as 
I conceive the fmelling of the external air could not be of ule 
as a fenfe. I therefore believe, that they do not fmell in infpi- 
ration ; yet let us conlider how they may be fuppofed to fmell < 
the odoriferous particles of the water. 
The organ of fmell is out of the direct road of the current 
of air in infpiration ; it is alfo out of the current of water ' 
when they fpout; may we not fuppofe then, that this fmus 
contains air, and as the water paffes in the ad of throwing it 
out, that it impregnates this refervoir of air, which imme-- 
diately affeds the fenfe of fmell. This operation is probably 
performed in the time of expiration, becaufe it is faid that this- 
water 
