OF CETACEOUS FISHES. 
55 
individual propagates only with thofe of its own kind ; 
and without mixture of breed, they tranfmit an unpol- 
luted race to pofterity. When they are feen in (hoals of 
different kinds together, or making their migrations in 
large companies from one ocean to another, their objeft 
probably is fecurity and mutual defence. Hardly any 
mflinft lefs powerful than that of felf prefervation, from 
the attacks of fmaller but more powerful fifties,, could in- 
duce them to an union by which the fcarcity of food mud 
he fo greatly increafed. 
Section II. 
Hie Common Whale*. 
-* his is the largeft animal known. In the north fea 
"'here it is mod frequently taken, itmeafures from nine- 
ty to an hundred feet in length ; and there is reafon to 
believe that before the fifliery had committed fuch vaft 
depredations, there were many of this fpecies feen of » 
far fuperior fize -f . In the warmer latitudes where they 
are l e l* frequently taken, and confequetitly have time to 
gain their full fize, they are ftill feen of the immenfe fize 
°t an hundred and fixty feet ; a circumftance which feems 
fo bellow credibility upon the relations of ancient wri- 
ters. ' - 
Though 
Baler.a, Rondelct. Willough. Ichth. La Bakine ordinabe, Briflo% 
t BritUb Zool. Qlafs ; v , c cn . i. 
