an animal remarkable for its minuteness, he is inclined to compare it with something still more minute;-if remarkable for its bigness, with something fully larger. If the animal inhabits an element where he cannot examine it, or is seen under any circumstances which prevent the possibility of his determining its dimensions, his decision will certainly be in that extreme which excites the most interest. Thus, when a whale has first been seen by any voyager, within a sufficiently short distance, we find him generally comparing it to "a mountain,” a mountain," a "floating island," or at least to the size of his ship. But, when he has happened to express himself as if the whale were longer than his ship, any author who followed him would conceive himself justified in calculating that, as his ship, judging from its known size, was 100 or 120 feet in length, the whale the voyager describes must have been 150 or 200 feet. This error would be the more easily committed two or three centuries back, when we know that whales were usually viewed with superstitious dread, and their magnitude and powers, in consequence, highly. exaggerated. And errors of this kind having a tendency to increase rather than correct each other, from the circumstance of each writer on the subject being influenced by a similar bias, the most gross and extravagant results are at length obtained. this way I conceive the erroneous opinions which prevail as to the magnitude of cetaceous animals may be accounted for.

In

Authors, we find, of the first respectability in the present age, giving a length of 80 to 100 feet or upwards to the Mysticetus, and remarking, with unqualified assertion, that when the captures were less frequent, and the animals had sufficient time to attain their full growth, specimens were found of 150 to 200 feet in length, or even longer; and some ancient naturalists, indeed, have gone so far as to assert, that whales had been seen of above 900 feet in length.

In a modern work of high literary character the following pas

sage occurs:

"Individuals of this species (Balana Mysticetus) are often caught that measure about 60 feet in length, and nearly 40 feet in circumference: and we are informed, on very credible authority, that whales of at least twice these dimensions have formerly been taken. To this latter size we must at present limit our belief, though ancient naturalists have given accounts of whales above 900 feet long. We are, however, disposed to think, that those writers who discredit the accounts of voyagers and historians

of the whalefishery, respecting the great size of whales formerly taken, are not warranted in their disbelief, because they themselves have not seen any of those large dimensions. There can be little doubt, that one natural effect of the long war which man has carried on against these animals, must be to diminish their number, and more especially that of the larger individuals, which, from being more profitable, would be more coveted. Hence, it may be readily conceived, that the whales now taken, are very inferior in size to those killed at or near the commencement of the whale-fishery." Edinburgh Encyclopædia, art. CETOLOGY, Vol. V. p. 685.

I make this quotation, not with a view of criticism, but because it conveys a very popular argument as to the reason why whales should have been of much greater magnitude in the early years of the fishery, than they are at present.

With regard to the size of which the Mysticetus at present occurs, it will be sufficient to say, that of 322 individuals, in the capture of which I have been personally concerned, no one, I believe, exceeded 60 feet in length; and the longest I ever measured was 58 feet from one extremity to the other, being one of the largest to appearance which I ever saw. I therefore conceive, that 60 feet may be considered as the size of the largest animals of this species, and 65 feet in length as a magnitude which very rarely occurs*. But, as we have no authority but what I conceive is questionable, for supposing the Mysticetus ever grew to a larger size than at present, my object will be to bring forward some authorities tending to prove, that this animal now occurs of as great dimensions, as at any former period since the commencement of the whale-fishery.

In Zorgdrager's History of the Greenland Fishery, is a list of the success of the Dutch Greenland Fleet, during a period of fifty years, comprehended between 1670 and 1719, from which, in 1677, we find, that 686 whales produced 30.050 quardeelen or barrels of blubber, or 44 barrels per fish. These barrels, Zorgdrager intimates in the same work, were of the capacity of 17 steekanan; the steckan, we know, is equivalent to 5.02 gallons wine measure; consequently, the barrel must be 85.34 gallons. Hence, the produce per fish comes out 29 butts of 126 gallons, or half a ton each English wine measure. In 1679, the average of 831 whales was 48 barrels, or about 314

Sir Charles Giesecké informs us, that in the spring of 1813, a whale was killed at Godhavn, of the length of 67 feet. Edin. Encycl. art. GREENLAND. ED.

butts; in 1680, the average of 1373 fish was 38 barrels, or 25 butts; and, in 1681, the average of 889 whales taken in the Greenland or Spitzbergen fishery by the Dutch fleet, was only 34 barrels, or 23 butts English. The largest average 311⁄2 butts, equal to about 12 tons of oil, corresponds with a whale of 9 or 10 feet whalebone, and 40 to 45 feet in length; the smallest, or 23 butts, corresponds with a fish of about 8 feet bone. But here it may be objected, that the Spitzbergen fishery affords many small whales, and, therefore, the general average can give no idea of the dimensions of the largest. As such, we shall consider the average product of whales taken in Davis' Straits, which have never been found, cubs excepted, but of a size capable of procreating the species. This fishery, when first established by the Dutch, certainly afforded whales considerably larger. From 1719 to 1728, the produce of 1251 large whales taken by the Dutch fleet, was 74.152 quardeelen of blubber, being 60 quardeelen per fish; which is the largest average I have observed in the whole list. This corresponds with 40 butts, or 20 tons of blubber, calculated to produce 15 to 16 tons of oil. A whale at present of 10 or 11 feet bone, and 48 to 50 feet in length, usually affords a similar quantity.

In a paper by a Mr Gray, registered in a manuscript preserved in the British Museum, by Mr Oldenburg, secretary to the Royal Society, in 1662-3, and, consequently, referring to a period at least as remote as that, where he speaks of the wages of the men they employed in the fishery, he observes, they have a certain perquisite "for every 13 tons of oil, which we call a whale;" thereby implying, that this, which corresponds with the produce of the present whales of 9 or 10 feet bone, and 40 to 45, or 50 feet in length, was the average size then captur ed.

Captain Anderson, who had made thirty-three voyages to Greenland in the first age of the Spitzbergen fishery, about the year 1640-50, as we infer from the circumstance of his having relieved eight men who wintered in Spitzbergen in 1630, the interesting narrative of whose sufferings is given by Edward Pelham, one of the adventurers, in the fourth volume of Churchill's Collection of Voyages, notices the size of the whale in these words: "An ordinary whale will yield 12 tons of oil, some 20,

if large, and taken at a seasonable time." Now, the large whales here mentioned, as yielding 20 tons of oil each, are similar in produce to those esteemed full grown animals, which yet occur in the neighbourhood of Spitzbergen and in Davis' Straits; such as whales of 50 to 60 feet in length, and 11 to 12 or 13 feet whalebone.

In a letter by Captain William Heley, one of the Russia Company's whale-fishers, dated 1617, preserved by Purchas, we read, that 150 whales had been killed that season, from whence 1800 tons of oil had been extracted, besides some blubber left behind for want of casks. We may consider here the average per fish as somewhat more than 12 tons of toil. Another letter, dated 1619, published likewise by Purchas, mentions eight fish having been caught, which made 1111⁄2 tons of oil, or 14 tons per fish nearly; and " two very large fish" (not then boiled) expected to produce 36 to 40 tons, or near 20 tons each; which is but just equal to a large fish at the present, and is a quantity indeed that is often exceeded. It is needless to multiply authorities of this description, else I could bring forward the testimonies of Martins, the author of the interesting Voyage to Spitzbergen, of Captains Edge, Salmon, Goodlard and Fanne, employed in the Russia Company's service, and of many others, all of which furnish the same conclusions.

But in none of the authorities yet quoted, is there any direct reference to the length of the whales; the evidence, which is decidedly the most satisfactory, therefore, remains to be considered.

In Purchas's "Pilgrimes," published in the year 1625, we have a description of the whale by Captain Edge, one of the Russia Company's chief fishers, who had been ten voyages to Spitzbergen, in which he calls it "a sea beaste of huge bigness, about 65 foot long and 35 foot thick," having whalebone 10 or 11 feet long, (a common size at present), and yielding about 100 hogsheads of oil. Jenkinson, in his voyage to Russia, performed in 1557, saw a number of whales, some of which, by estimation, were 60 feet long, and are described as being "very monstrous." And at the margin of a descriptive plate, accompanying Captain Edge's paper on the Fishery, is a drawing of a whale, with this remark subjoined,-" A whale is ordinarily about 60 foot long."

I have now only to remark in conclusion, that as I have not met with a single actual measurement of the whale by any voyager or historian of respectability, ancient or modern, which is at all at variance with what has been advanced, excepting where specimens of the Balæna Physalus have been mistaken for those of the Mysticetus, I presume we may conclude, that whales are caught of as great dimensions in the present day as at any period within the last two hundred years, or since the fishery began.

ART. XVII.--Account of the Recent Discoveries in Egypt respecting the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid. Drawn up from original Letters, and other sources of information,* and illustrated with Drawings.

THE monumental ruins of Egypt, combining in their structure, as a kind of architectural paradox, at once colossal magnitude and minute concealment, had, for ages past, afforded a subject of inexhaustible investigation to the learned antiquarians and enterprising travellers of Europe; but all the conjectures of the former, and researches of the latter, had proved incompetent to the task of satisfactorily solving these material enigmas. The united ingenuity and labours even of the French philosophers and artists, who prosecuted their inquiries with the full assistance and protection of their military power, had not been able to penetrate the most interesting of these mysteries, or even to accomplish the mechanical removal of the most palpable obstructions. The natural spirit and sagacity of two adventurous individuals, Mr Caviglia and Mr Belzoni, aided by the liberality of a few private persons, and patronised particularly by Mr Salt, the British Consul at Cairo, have effected more in the space of a few months, than had been done in the course of as many preceding centuries. But, without indulging in farther preliminary reflections, we hasten to present a brief abstract of the operations so successfully prosecuted, and so ably directed by one of these gentlemen, in exploring the in

* Quarterly Review, &c.