66 
MAMMALIA. 
clay, near Dingwall, which, contains many sea- shells, and is 
evidently a marine deposit ; but the spot where the vertebra was 
found is three miles distant from the high-water mark, and twelve 
feet in height above the present level of the sea.* Many other 
instances might be mentioned, and the petro-tympanic, or ear- 
bones, of Whales and Cachalots, which are not unfrequently met 
with, have received the appellation of cetotolites. 
The Cachalots, or Sperm Whales, are altogether distinct from 
the true Balcenidce, and Dr. Gray classes them as a distinct family, 
Catodontidce. Their affinity is indeed much nearer to the Dolphins 
and Porpoises, so much so that they range quite naturally as 
abnormal members of the extensive family of Delphinidce. Indeed, 
in one southern species, known as the Kogia or Euphysetes Grayi , 
not only is the size considerably reduced, but also the proportionate 
dimensions of the head, bringing it nearer to the ordinary forms 
of Dedphinidce.\ 
Cachalot. — The Cachalot (. Physeter macrocephalus) is of a con- 
siderable size. In this respect certain Whales alone surpass it. It 
attains to from twenty-four or twenty-six metres in length, and 
to seventeen metres in circumference. Its head is about one- 
third of the length of its whole body ; it is of a cylindrical shape, 
slightly compressed and truncated in front. 
The Cachalot is an enormous cubic mass, of ten, twelve, or 
fifteen metres in length, by four or five metres in breadth. When 
a lifeless Cachalot is floating alongside of a ship, it wants some 
reflection to discover its head : one would at first be tempted to 
take this mass for a small half- submerged ship. 
The mouth opens on a level with the lower surface of this 
monument of flesh and fat. The lower jaw is provided with large 
conical teeth, all similar to each other, the number of which some- 
times amounts to fifty-four. Corresponding with each tooth, there is 
in the upper jaw a cavity adapted to receive it when the mouth is 
shut. Behind and above the cleft of the mouth, or point of union of 
the lips, is the eye, placed in a manner to enable it to see obliquely 
on each side, in an angle of forty to fifty degrees with regard to the 
axis of its body. This eye is small and black. Behind the eye 
comes the orifice of the ear, which is hardly visible, and, farther 
on, the flipper, which is very small. At the extremity of the 
* Owen’s British Fossil Mammals and Birds , p. 562. 
