44 
OF CETACEOUS FISHES, 
diminilhcd both the number and the fize of the cetaceous 
tribes : Man had no fooner completed his fovereignty 
over the ocean by the invention of the compafs, than 
thefe animals were fo much thinned by continual cap- 
ture or deflruetion, that they have never had time to ar- 
rive at that enormous bulk which the peaceable peffef-. 
lion of the fea, in former ages, conferred *. 
The external conformation of the filhes of this.genus, 
no lefs than their fize, ferves to charafterife them 
among the other inhabitants of the deep. They are co- 
vered with a dark-coloured cinereous Ikia : they are 
moved, commonly againft the wind, and with vaft rapi- 
dity, by means of a horizontal tail, aided by three fins ; 
two pt&oral, and one back fin ; but in fome fpecies, the 
laft is wanting. The head is commonly extremely large, 
in proportion to the fize of the body, being in fome equal 
to a third of the fize of the fifii. The animal is di- 
refted to its prey by two fmall eyes, furniflied with eye- 
lids, and not fuperior in fize to thofe of an ox. As the 
cetaceous tribes all breathe by means of lungs, they have 
no branchim nor external apparatus for that purpofe f. 
In the middle of the head, there is one, fometimes two 
orifices, through which they fpout water to a valt 
height, and with a great noife. With thefe orifices raif- 
ed above the furface, the whales fleep and breathe, gen- 
tly moving their fins, to keep them poifed upon thefum- 
mit of the water +. When immerfed below the furface, 
or while devouring their food, water unavoidably ruflies 
into the throat and lungs, and is, in this manner, ejedted 
every time they rife for a fupply of air. If the animal 
be wounded, it fpouts the air and water with a violence 
fufficient 
* Vide Erithh Zoology, clafs iv. gen. I. f Ariftot. Hift. Animal. 
j Willough. lib. ii. cap. I, 
