in health, of a beautiful yellow. The muscles lie beneath, and these, like the flesh of quadrupeds, are very red and tough.

The cleft of the mouth is above twenty feet long, which is near one third of the animal's whole length; and the upper jaw is furnished with barbs, that lie like the pipes of an organ, the greatest in the middle, and the smallest to the sides. These compose the whalebone, the longest spars of which are found to be not less than eighteen feet; the shortest, being of no value, are thrown away. The tongue is almost immoveably fixed to the lower jaw, seeming one great lump of fat; and in fact it fills several hogsheads with blubber. The eyes are not larger than those of an ox; and when the crystalline humour is dried, it does not appear larger than a pea. They are placed towards the back of the head, being the most convenient situation for enabling them to see both before and behind, as also to see over them, where their food is principally found. They are guarded by eye-lids and eye-lashes, as in quadrupeds; and they seem to be very sharp-sighted.

Nor is their sense of hearing in less perfection, for they are warned at great distances of any danger preparing against them. It would seem as if nature had designedly given them these advantages, as they multiply little, in order to continue their kind. It is true, indeed, that the external organ of hearing is not perceptible, for this might only embarrass thein in their natural element; but as soon as the thin scarfskin above mentioned is removed, a black spot is discovered behind the eye, and under that is the auditory canal, that leads to a regular apparatus for hearing. In short, the animal hears the smallest sounds at very great distances, and at all times, except when it is spouting water, which is the time that the fishers approach to strike it.

These spout-holes or nostrils, in all the cetaceous tribe, have been already described: in this whale there are two, one on each side the head before the eyes, and crooked somewhat like the holes on the belly of a violin. From these holes this animal blows the water very fiercely, and with such a noise that it roars like a hollow wind, and may be heard at three miles distance. When wounded, it then blows more fiercely than ever, so that it sounds like the roaring of the sea in a great storm.

We have already observed, that the substance called whalebone is taken from the upper jaw of the animal, and is very different from the real bones of the whale. The real bones are hard, like those of great land animals, are very porous, and filled with marrow. Two great strong bones sustain the under lip, lying against each other in the shape of a half-moon; some of these are twenty feet long: they are seen in several gardens set up against each other, and are usually mistaken for the ribs of this animal.

Such is the general conformation and figure of this great inhabitant of the deep, the precise anatomy of which has not been yet ascertained. In those places where they are caught in greatest abundance, the sailors are not very curious as to the structure of the viscera; and few anatomists care to undertake a task, where the operator, instead of separating with a lancet, must cut his way with an axe. It is as yet doubted, therefore, whether the whale, that in most points internally resembles a quadruped, may not have one great bowel fitted entirely for the reception of air, to supply it when constrained to keep longer than usual at the bottom. The sailors universally affirm that it has; and philosophers have nothing but the analogy of its parts to oppose to their general assertions.

As these animals resemble quadrupeds in conformation, so they bear a strong resemblance in some of their appetites and manners. The female joins with the male, as is asserted, more humano, and once in two years feels the accesses of desire.

Their fidelity to each other exceeds whatever we are told of even the constancy of birds. Some fishers, as Anderson informs us, having struck one of two whales, a male and a female, that were in company together, the wounded fish made a long and a terrible resistance: it struck down a boat with three men in it, with a single blow of the tail, by which all went to the bottom. The other still attended its companion, and lent it every assistance, till at last the fish that was struck sunk under the number of its wounds, while its faithful associate, disdaining to survive the loss, with great bellowing stretched itself upon the dead fish, and shared its fate.

The whale goes with young nine or ten months, and is then fatter than usual, particularly when near the time of bringing forth. It is said that the embryo, when first perceptible, is about seventeen inches long, and white; but the cub, when excluded, is black, and about ten feet long. She generally produces one young one, and never above two. When she suckles her young, she throws herself on one side on the surface of the sea, and the young one attaches itself to the teat. The breasts are two, generally hid within the belly; but she can produce them at pleasure, so as to stand forward a foot and a half or two feet; and the teats are like those of a cow. In some the breasts are white; in others speckled; in all filled with a large quantity of milk, resembling that of land animals.

Nothing can exceed the tenderness of the female for her offspring; she carries it with her wherever she goes, and, when hardest pursued, keeps it sup

ported between her fins. Even when wounded, she still clasps her young one; and when she plunges to avoid danger, takes it to the bottom, but rises sooner than usual, to give it breath again.

The young ones continue at the breast for a year, during which time they are called by the sailors short-heads. They are then extremely fat, and yield above fifty barrels of blubber. The mother, at the same time, is equally lean and emaciated. At the age of two years they are called stunts, as they do not thrive much immediately after quitting the breast; they then scarce yield above twenty, or twenty-four barrels of blubber: from that time forward they are called skull-fish, and their age is wholly unknown.

Every species of whale propagates only with those of its own kind, and does not at all mingle with the rest: however, they are generally seen in shoals of different kinds together, and make their migrations in large companies from one ocean to another. They are a gregarious animal, which implies their want of mutual defence against the invasions of smaller, but more powerful fishes. It seems astonishing, therefore, how a shoal of these enormous animals find subsistence together, when it would seem that the supplying even one with food would require greater plenty than the ocean could furnish. To increase our wonder, we not only see them herding together, but usually find them fatter than any other animals of whatsoever element. We likewise know that they cannot swallow large fishes, as their throat is so narrow, that an animal larger than a herring could not enter. How then do they subsist and grow so fat? A small insect which is seen floating in those ..seas, and which Linnæus terms the Medusa, is sufficient for this supply. These insects are black, and of the size of a small bean, and are sometimes seen floating in clusters on the surface of the water. They

are of a round form, like snails in a box, but they have wings, which are so tender that it is scarcely possible to touch them without breaking. These serve rather for swimming than flying; and the little animal is called by the Icelanders the Walfischoas, which signifies the whale's provender. They have the taste of raw muscles, and have the smell of burnt sugar. These are the food of the whale, which it is seen to draw up in great numbers with its huge jaws, and to bruise between its barbs, which are always found with several of these sticking among them.

This is the simple food of the great Greenland whale; it pursues no other animal, leads an inoffensive life in its element, and is harmless in proportion to its strength to do mischief. There seems to be an analogy between its manners, and those of the elephant. They are both the strongest and the largest animals in their respective elements; neither offer injury, but are terrible when provoked to resentment. The fin-fish indeed, in some measure differs from the great whale in this particular, as it subsists chiefly upon herrings, great shoals of which it is often seen driving before it. Yet even the swallow of this fish is not very large if compared to the cachalot tribe, and its ravages are but sports in comparison. The stomach and intestines of all these animals, when opened, seldom have any thing in them except a soft unctuous substance, of a brownish colour; and their excrements are of a shining red.

As the whale is an inoffensive animal, it is not to be wondered that it has many enemies, willing to take advantage of its disposition and inaptitude for combat. There is a small animal, of the shell-fish kind, called the Whale-louse, that sticks to its body, as we see shells sticking to the foul bottom of a ship. This insinuates itself chiefly under the fins; and