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REVIEWS OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
“ What an impenetrable veil covers our knowledge of Cetacea!” exclaims M. 
Lesson ; “ groping in the dark, we advance in a field strewn with thorns.” “ No 
branch of Zoology,” says Scoresby, “ is so much involved as that which is entitled 
Cetology.” According to Cuvier, “ Toutes ces indications incompletes ne seryent 
qua mettre les naturalistes a. la torture .” Such has long been the state of this 
interesting department of zoological science; and such, to a very considerable 
extent, it still remains, notwithstanding the able researches of many learned 
naturalists of the present day. The Sperm Whale, so valuable in a commercial 
point of view, has been most grievously calumniated; for the sailors who have 
been for a long course of years pursuing this Leviathan of the “ vasty deep” 
deem themselves fit chroniclers of its natural history, thereby palming off upon 
the credulous public, and even upon naturalists, a singular mixture of truth and 
error; which has at length become so completely wound up with the very idea 
of the Sperm Whale, that he who attempts a more lucid and correct delineation 
of its history, has assuredly undertaken a task sufficiently arduous. 
Mr. Beale justly observes (p. 2), that while every one has heard of the 
Greenland Whale-fishery, few connect the pursuit of this “ sea beast” with the 
smiling latitudes of the South Pacific, and the Coral-isles of the Torrid Zone. 
The Sperm Whale, moreover, has been falsely accused with respect to its vocal 
powers, the most eminent cetelogists having represented it as uttering sundry 
terrible groans and dismal roars, while our author contends that its capability in 
this respect is limited to a trifling hissing during the expiration of the spout 
(p. 3). While this m-onster has actually been calmly ploughing the ocean depths in 
search of its lawful and appointed prey, avoiding with the most^Sheepish timidity 
the slightest appearance of danger, its biographers have represented it as the most 
savage of animals. Whether, on the one hand, the said biographers have 
intentionally mis-stated the case, or whether, on the other, certain moderate-sized, 
peaceably-disposed inhabitants of Neptune’s watery domain would return a 
verdict in favour of the Whale’s amiability, it is not for us to determine; suffice 
it to say, that the mere approach of a common Whaling-boat causes in its mind 
a degree of alarm sufficient to repel the huge body into the depths of the 
sea (p. 4). 
By the way, pray who is Monsieur “ Lacapede” ? At first we passed this over 
as a slip of the press—for such a thing never entered our head as to imagine for a 
moment that any gentleman, British or Foreign, could possibly be quoted by 
Mr. Beale in a natural-historical matter, and at the same time be unknown to 
us. We shrewdly suspect that Lacepede is the name intended. But Mr. 
Beale’s genius was never intended for the frivolities of the French tongue. He 
is clearly of opinion—and for ought we know or care to the contrary he may be 
right—that the nearer this “ jargon” approaches our own language, the better. 
