OF CETACEOUS FISHES. 
48 
fliarp teeth, thefe animals when they furround a whale 
feldom allow it to come off* with life. They tear and 
mangle its flelh on all fides, till fatigued with fighting, 
and overcome with wounds, it falls a prey at laft to their 
fury ; and after it expires, the tongue is extracted, the 
only part which they devour. 
By the conftant hoftilities of thefe various animals, the 
race of whales has probably been gradually diminiftiing 
in number for feveral ages *. From the largenefs of their 
fize they cannot eafily be concealed from their deftroyers 5 
and as they are diltinguilhed by fterility among the finny 
tribes, their deftruction cannot foon be repaired: But of 
all the caufes of the wafte and diminution of this order 
of fifties, the interference of man has operated by far 
the molt powerfully. His hoftilities has been incompara- 
bly more fatal than thofe of all the reft of their enemies ; 
and a greater number is probably deftroyed in a feafott 
by the ingenuity of the filhermen, than i3 devoured by 
the rapacious animals in an age. 
The inhofpitable Ihores of Spitsbergen were found to 
be the great refort of the whales ; and for more than three 
centuries, notwithftanding the coldnefs of the climate* 
and the terrors of the icy fea, a great number of Euro- 
pean Ihips have annually frequented thofe dreary abodes* 
and at length thinned the number of their inhabitants. 
The whale fiihe'ry was carried on, for the fake of the 
oil, long before the ufe of whale bone was difcovered f» 
The fubftance which has obtained that name, adheres to 
the upper jaw $ and is formed of thin parallel laminae* 
fome of the longeft four yards in length. Of thefe there 
are 
2 
* Vide Brit. Zoology, Chfs. iv. Genua, r, 
t Vide Aoderfon’s Duil. vol. i. p. 441. 
