68 
THE CACHALOT. 
ty pounds weight, and never above four in the fame 
Thefe balls of ambergris, the purpofcs of which, in 
medicine and perfumes, are fo well known, are not in- 
dilcriminately found in every fifh : it is only the old eft 
and ftrongeft that yield it in any confiderable quantity. 
The Blunt Headed Cachalot *. 
r i His fpecies fometimes vifits the coafls of Britain ; A 
dead one was call alhore near Edinburgh in the year 
1769, which meafured fifty-four feet, from the mouth 
to the tail ; and its greateft circumference was thirty- 
feet f. 
The head of this animal is of an. enormous fize, far 
exceeding the proportions of the whale. The upper jaw 
projects five feet beyond the lower ; and its length is a- 
bout fifteen feet, the other being only ten. Near the 
fnout, which is quite blunt, and near nine feet high, 
is placed that orifice peculiar to the cetaceous order, by 
which they fpout the water. The lower jaw is armed 
with forty-fix teeth, all pointing outward to meet the 
fockets, where they enter into the upper. The teeth 
are about feven inches in circumference at the bottom, 
fharpening as you approach the top ; they are all bent, 
and like the teeth of the other cetaceous fifties, they are 
white, 
> Le cachalot a dents en faucilles. Briffon. Phyfitcr. Microps, Lin, Syft, 
■} Britiih Zoology, clais iv. gen. 3. 
