The sea and its living wonders : a popular account of the marvels of the deep and of the progress of maritime discovery from the earliest ages to the present time / by Dr. G. Hartwig.

  • Georg Hartwig
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The sea and its living wonders : a popular account of the marvels of the deep and of the progress of maritime discovery from the earliest ages to the present time / by Dr. G. Hartwig. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    :)6 THE IXHABITANTS] OF THE SEA. thick layer of fat, and by their simple or double blow-hole, which is situated at the top of the head, and corresponds to the nostrils of the quadrupeds, though not for the purpose of smelling, but merely as an organ of respiration. Our knowledge of the ceta- ceans is still very incomplete ; and this is not to be wondered at, when we consider that they chiefly dwell in the most inaccessible parts of the ocean, and that when met with, the swiftness of their movements rarely allows more than a flighty view of their external form. Thus their habits and mode of living are mostly enveloped in obscurity ; and while doubtless many ceta- ceans are to the present day un- known, one and the same species has not seldom been described under different names, to the no small confusion of the Datura list. The cetaceans are either with- out a dental apparatus, or pro- vided with teeth. The former, or the whalebone whales, have two blow-holes on the top of the head, in the form of two longitudinal fissures ; while in the latter, (sperm-whales, unicorn-fish, dol- phins,) which comprise by far the greater number of species, there Bones of the Anterior Fin of a Whale. is bllt 0De transversal Spout-hole, In all whales the larynx is con- tinued to the spouting canal, and deeply inserted or closely imbricated within its tube. Thus no tones approaching to a voice can be emitted except through the spiracles, which are encumbered with valves, and evidently badly adapted for the transmission of sound. Scoresby assures us that the Green- land whale has no voice, and Bennett frequently noticed sperm
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