The food of the whale consists of various species of actiniæ, cliones, sepiæ, medusæ, cancri, and helices; or at least some of these genera are always to be seen whenever any tribe of whales is found stationary and feeding. In the dead animals, however, in the very few instances in which I have been enabled to open their stomachs, squillæ or shrimps were the only substances discovered. In the mouth of a whale just killed, I once found a quantity of the same kind of insect.
When the whale feeds, it swims with considerable velocity below the surface of the sea, with its jaws widely extended. A stream of water consequently enters its capacious mouth, and along with it, large quantities of water insects; the water escapes again at the sides; but the food is entangled and sifted as it were, by the whalebone, which, from its compact arrangement, and the thick internal covering of hair, does not allow a particle the size of the smallest grain to escape.
SIR JOSEPH BANKS.
On Monday morning, June 19, 1820, at 8 o'clock, died, at his house, Spring Grove, near Hounslow, the venerable President of the Royal Society, the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, G. C. B. &c. &c. &c. The loss to science by the demise of this excellent man and liberal patron will be long and severely felt. It will be recollected, that when it was determined to send Captain Cook on his first voyage round the globe, Sir Joseph Banks, then a young man, whose ardent mind glowed with a love of science and of ingenious enterprise, determined to accompany him. His liberal spirit and generous curiosity were regarded with admiration, and every convenience from the government was readily supplied to render the circumstances of the voyage as comfortable as possible. Far, however, from soliciting any accommodation that might occasion expense to government, Mr. Banks was ready to contribute largely out of his own private fortune towards the general purposes of the expedition. He engaged as his director in natural history during the voyage, and as the companion of his researches, Dr. Solander, of the British museum, a Swede by birth, and one of the most eminent pupils of Linnæus, whose scientific merits had been his chief recommendation to patronage in England. He also took with him two draughtsmen, one to delineate views and figures, the other to paint subjects of natural history. A secretary and four servants formed the rest of his suite. He took care to provide likewise the necessary instruments for his intended observations, with convenience for preserving such specimens as he might collect of natural or artificial objects, and with stores to be distributed in the remote isles he was going to visit, for the improvement of the condition of savage life. In the course of the voyage dangers were encountered of no ordinary magnitude. On the coast of Terra del Fuego in an excursion to view the natural productions of the country, Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander had nearly perished in a storm of snow. After passing a night on land, amid the storm, they at last, and with much difficulty, made their way back to the beach, and were received on board the ship; but three of the persons who accompanied them were lost. Shortly after his return from this voyage, Sir Joseph, in company with his friend Dr. Solander, visited Iceland. A rich harvest of new knowledge and of specimens compensated for the toils and expense of this scientific adventure. They afterwards visited the Western Islands of Scotland: and among other things worthy of notice, they discovered the columna stratification of the rocks surrounding the caves of Staffa; a phenomenon till then unobserved by naturalists, but was no sooner made known in a description by Sir J. Banks, than it became famous among men of science throughout Europe. In 1777, when Sir John Pringle retired from the presidency of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks was elected to fill the vacant chair; and never perhaps has it been filled with more honour to the individual, or more advantage to the interests of science. His time, his wealth, (which was a princely fortune,) his influence, his talents, an incomparable library of science and art; knowledge and judgment to advise; affability to conciliate and encourage; generosity to assist; all in short of which he possessed, and it was all something either of goodness or greatness, he made the patrimony of the studious and learned, not of his own country alone, but of the whole world.
CURIOUS FACTS IN NATURAL HISTORY.
The examination of flowers by the microscope opens a new field of wonder to the inquiring naturalist; by which we are enabled to perceive that the minutest works of Nature are adorned with the most consummate elegance and beauty. As one proof, from innumerable others that might be selected, I beg to subjoin Sir John Hill's interesting account of what appeared on examining a carnation;—first published in the Inspector, No. 109. "The principal flower in this bouquet, was a carnation; the fragrance of this led me to enjoy it frequently and nearly: the sense of smelling was not the only one affected on these occasions; while that was satiated with the powerful sweet, the ear was constantly attacked by an extremely soft but agreeable murmuring sound. It was easy to know that some animal, within the covert, must be the musician, and that the little noise must come from some little body suited to produce it. I instantly distended the lower part of the flower, and, placing it in a full light, could discover troops of little insects frisking and capering with wild jollity among the narrow pedestals that supported its leaves, and the little threads that occupied its centre! I was not cruel enough to pull out any one of them for examination: but adapting a microscope to take in at one view, the whole base of the flower, I gave myself an opportunity of contemplating what they were about, and this for many days together without giving them the least disturbance.—Thus could I discover their economy, their passions and their enjoyments. The microscope, on this occasion, had given what nature seemed to have denied to the objects of contemplation. The base of the flower extended itself under its influence to a vast plain; the slender stems of the leaves became trunks of so many stately cedars; the threads in the middle seemed columns of massy structure, supporting at the top their several ornaments; and the narrow spaces between were enlarged into walls, paterres, and terraces. On the polished bottom of these, brighter than Parian marble, walked in pairs, alone, or in larger companies, the winged inhabitants: these from little dusky flies (for such only the naked eye would have shown them,) were raised to glorious glittering animals, stained with living purple, and with a glossy gold that would have made all the labours of the loom contemptible in the comparison. I could, at leisure as they walked together, admire their elegant limbs, their velvet shoulders, and their silken wings; their backs vieing with the empyrean in its blue; and their eyes, each formed of a thousand others, out-glittering the little planes on a brilliant; above description, and too great almost for admiration. Here were the perfumed groves, the more than myrtle shades, of the poet's fancy, realized; here the little animals spent their days in joyful dalliance; or in the triumph of their little hearts, skipped after one another from stem to stem among the painted trees; or winged their short flight to the close shadow of some broader leaf, to revel undisturbed in the heights of all felicity."