890 
whale tribe. 
fortunate circumstances of their wretched liveg. 
They make their abode beside it ; and seldom remove 
till they have left nothing but the bones. In the 
days of Willoughby, the eating whale was growing 
into disuse in England ; and at present the Dutch 
sailor^, as well as our own, will not taste it except 
in cases of urgent necessity ; it is said, however, 
that the French seamen frequently dress. and use it 
as their ordinary food at sea. The wretched inha- 
bitants of the island of Feroe, who live one half 
of the year on salted gulls, are also, we are told, 
very fond of salted whales flesh ; the fat of the 
head, after being well seasoned, they hang up in 
the chimney, and eat like bacon. 
The internal structure of the whale, we have 
already remarked, resembles almost in every respect 
that of quadrupeds : like them they possess lungs, 
a bilocular heart, a diaphragm and urinary blad» 
der. 
As the cetaceous fishes resemble terrestrial ani- 
mals in their conformation, so they are also dis- 
tinguished by similar appetites and manners : 
among them the act of copulation is said to be per- 
formed more humano , and the female once in two 
years feels the access of desire. In the inferior 
tribes of fish, we can discern hardly any thing like 
pairing between the males and females, and have no 
vestiges of conjugal fidelity. The mutual attach- 
ment of the whales, however, exceeds whatever we 
are told of the constancy of birds.. 
Whenever a pair of whales are attacked by the 
fishers, they mutually assist, it is asserted, in the 
defence of each other ; and wheb one is wounded 
the other still attends, lending every aid in its 
power ; and no motives of fear, or self preservation, 
can urge it to desert its associate. An instance 
is recorded of one, which, after maintaining an ob- 
stinate conflict in defence of its companion, that 
