cular tail is suddenly elevated as the animal
plunges perpendicularly down into the depth, or
rises beneath the keel to explore the opposite
side. So smooth are their bodies, that their gambols are performed with surprisingly little disturbance of the water, and even when descending
from their agile somersets, they make scarcely any
splashing. It was this playfulness and sociality,
doubtless, that made the Dolphin so great a favourite with the ancients; the poets abounding
with beautiful fables of its docility and love of man.
The Dolphin produces but a single young one at a time, which she suckles with care and tenderness. The milk is abundant, and of a creamy richness. Its flesh was formerly considered so great a delicacy as to be frequently served at civic feasts. We have tasted it repeatedly, and found it, though dark, tender and not disagreeable.
Family II. PHYSETERIDA.
(Cachalots.)
In this and the following Family we find the largest of all existing animals. They are remarkable also for the enormous size of the head, as compared with the proportions of other animals. In the Cachalots the head, which occupies more than one-third of the whole bulk of the animal, terminates in a broad muzzle, appearing as though it had been abruptly cut off, in its full thickness. The lower jaw is narrow, slender, and pointed the two branches (ramz) of which it is composed, being united into one for a great part of their
