Identifier: marinemammalsofn00scam (find matches)
Title: The marine mammals of the north-western coast of North America, described and illustrated; together with an account of the American whale-fishery
Year: 1874 (1870s)
Authors: Scammon, Charles Melville, 1825-1911
Subjects: Marine mammals Cetacea Sealing Whaling Whales Dolphins
Publisher: San Francisco, J.H. Carmany New York, Putnam
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
a smell, nor prove of such a fattexture. One thing, however, is very remark-able, that a resemblance to the smell of thisdrug, which is the most agreeable of all theperfumes, should be produced by a preparationof one of the most odious of all substances.Mr. Homberg found that a vessel in which hehad made a long digestion of human faeces, ac-quired a very strong and perfect smell of am-bergris, insomuch that any one would havethought that a great quantity of essence ofambergris had been made in it; the perfumewas so strong and offensive that the vessel hadto be removed from the laboratory! (BranchsManual of Chemistry, p. 594.) Ambergris appearsto be nothing but the hardened freces of theSpermaceti Whale, which is pretty well provedfrom its being mixed so intimately with therefuse of its food (the squids beaks). Mr.Enderby has a fine specimen of this substance,six or seven inches long, which bears very evi-dent marks of having been molded by the lowerportion of the rectum of the whale.
Text Appearing After Image:
CHAPTER IX.THE DOLPIIOS. In addition to the whalebone whales, and the Cachalot, which have been de-scribed in the preceding pages as frequenting the North-western Coast of NorthAmerica, many species of Dolphins are also found. Those coming under our ob-servation are known as the Blackfish (Ghbiocephalus Scammonii), the Killer (Orca),the Whitefish (Beluga), the Bay Porpoise (Phoccena vomerina), the Striped or Com-mon Porpoise (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens), Bairds Dolphin (Delphinus Bairdii), theRight Whale Porpoise (Leucorhamphus horealis), the Cowfish (Tursiops GiUii), theWhite-headed or Mottled Grampus (Grampus Stearnsii), the Bottle-nosed Grampus,the Panama Grampus, the Puget Sound Grampus, the San Diego Bay Grampus, theSquare-headed Grampus, the Brown-sided Dolphin of Santa Barbara Channel, andthe Narwhal (Monodon monoceros). All these species are covered with a coatingof fat, or blubber, varying in thickness from one-half of one inch to four inches. SECTION I.-THE BLACKFISH. Globio

Note About Images