an appellation given to the fishes of the whale kind; the characters of which are: they have no gills; there is an orifice on the top of the head, through which they breathe and eject water; and they have a flat or horizontal tail.

Nature on this tribe hath bestowed an internal structure in all respects agreeing with that of quadrupeds; and in a few others the external parts in both are similar. Cetaceous fish, like land animals, breathe by means of lungs, being destitute of gills. This obliges them to rise frequently on the surface of the water to respire, to sleep on the surface, as well as to perform several other functions. They have the power of uttering sounds, such as bellowing and making other noises denied to genuine fish. Like land animals they have warm blood, are furnished with organs of generation, copulate, bring forth, and suckle their young, showing a strong attachment to them. Their bodies beneath the skin are entirely surrounded with a thick layer of fat (blubber), analogous to the lard on hogs. The number of their fins never exceed three, viz. two pectoral fins, and one back fin; but in some species the last is wanting. Their tails are placed horizontally, or flat in respect to their bodies; contrary to the direction of those of all other fish, which have them in a perpendicular site. This situation of the tail enables them to force themselves suddenly to the surface of the water to breathe, which they do so frequently as to be almost constantly doing so.

Many of these circumstances induced Linnaeus to place this tribe among his mammalia, or what other writers call quadrupeds*. To have preserved the chain of beings entire, he should in this case have made the genus of phoca or seals, and that of the trichecus or manati, immediately precede the whale, those being the links that connect the mammalia or quadrupeds with the fish: for the seal is, in respect to its legs, the most imperfect of the former class; and in the manati the hind feet coalesce, assuming the form of a broad horizontal tail.

Notwithstanding the many parts and properties which cetaceous fish have in common with land animals, yet there still remain others which render it more natural to place them, with Ray, in the rank of fish: the form of their bodies agrees with that of fish; they are entirely naked, or covered only with a smooth skin; they live constantly in the water, and have all the actions of fish.