I  may  add  that  our  insular  position,  by  enabling  us  more  frequently  to  examine  these  animals,  and  the  extensive
trade  which  we  formerly  carried  on  in  them,  have  caused  our  writers  to  be  better  acquainted  with  them,  and  for  us  to
collect  together  a  greater  mass  of  their  remains  than  our  continental  neighbours.
Belon  and  Rondelet  appear  to  have  known  the  Dolphin  [Delphinus  Delphis),  the  'Ondre'  (D.  Tursio),  and  the
Phocaena  (P.  vulgaris) ;  but  their  account  of  the  Spermaceti  Whale  is  very  indistinct.
Clusius,  in  1605,  first  described  and  figured  the  Sperm  Whale  in  a  recognizable  manner,  from  two  specimens  thrown
on  the  coast  of  Holland  in  1598  and  1601  ;  and  Johnston  (t.  41  and  42)  well  figures  one  of  these  specimens.
In  1671,  Martens,  in  his  '  Voyage  to  Spitzbergen,'  gave  a  description  and  figure  of  the  Whalebone  Whale,  the  "  Fin
Fish"  (Balmnoptera  Physalus),  the  Weise  Fish  [Beluga  Catodon),  and  of  the  Botzkopt  [Orca  Gladiator):  and  his
figures  of  the  first  and  second  have  been  the  chief  authorities  for  these  animals  until  our  time.
