ORDER OF CETACEA. 
33 
The Cetacea of the tribe of Whales (. Balcenidce ) owe the enor- 
mous development of the head, not to the brain nor to the skull, 
which preserve their ordinary proportions, but to the bones of the 
face, which acquire enormous dimensions. They comprise the 
genus Whale and the genus Cachalot or Sperm Whale.* 
Whales are divided into two sections, Whales properly so called, 
and Rorquals. 
The Whales properly so called are the Greenland or Right 
Whale (Balcena mysticetus), another species in the Northern 
Pacific, and two or more species in the Antarctic Ocean. 
These animals are the especial object of desire of whalers in 
both hemispheres. They resist the attacks of man less than the 
others, and for a long time have yielded very abundant products. 
What we are going to say on Whales will, then, apply particularly 
to the Right Whale of the Arctic Regions. 
The Right Whales are not, as commonly supposed, the largest of 
marine animals, and indeed of all animals whatever, existent or 
extinct, for they do not attain such enormous dimensions as some 
of the Rorquals. According to Scoresby, the Greenland Whale does 
not exceed seventy feet in length, and its geographical range is con- 
fined within the limits of the Arctic Circle. But the Right Whales 
are considerably the most bulky in proportion to their length. 
Whales are by most people considered as shapeless masses, as if 
these creatures, which far exceed all others in length and bulk, 
differed from them also by being wanting in those proportions 
which we consider as allied to beauty. Let us examine, however, 
this mass, shapeless in appearance, and let us see if it does not, on 
the contrary, present a well-arranged whole, f 
The body of the Right Whale (Fig. 12) has the form of an 
immense and irregular cylinder, the diameter of which is about a 
third of its length. The anterior portion of this enormous cylinder 
is the head, of which the size is a third of the whole animal. 
Convex above, the head represents very nearly a portion of a 
sphere. Slightly behind the middle of this sphere rises an 
* The Cachalots belong properly to the Dolphin series, and the remainder, or true 
Whales and Rorquals, are toothless, and provided with flakes of baleen (popularly 
styled whalebone). — Ed. 
f In all of the Cetacea the skull is unsymmetrical as viewed from above, except, 
in the Susus ( Platanista , and perhaps Inia ) . The single tusk of the Narwhal again 
exemplifies this irregularity ; and whalers assert that the Cachalots are always blind 
on one side, of which circumstance they endeavour to take advantage.— Ed. 
D 
