of the names in this list of whale authors, only those following owen ever saw living whales; and but one of them was a real professional harpooneer and whaleman. i mean captain scoresby. on the separate subject of the greenland or right-whale, he is the best existing authority. but scoresby knew nothing and says nothing of the great sperm whale, compared with which the greenland whale is almost unworthy mentioning. and here be it said, that the greenland whale is an usurper upon the throne of the seas. he is not even by any means the largest of the whales. yet, owing to the long priority of his claims, and the profound ignorance which, till some seventy years back, invested the then fabulous or utterly unknown sperm-whale, and which ignorance to this present day still reigns in all but some few scientific retreats and whale-ports; this usurpation has been every way complete. reference to nearly all the leviathanic allusions in the great poets of past days, will satisfy you that the greenland whale, without one rival, was to them the monarch of the seas. but the time has at last come for a new proclamation. this is charing cross; hear ye! good people all,—the greenland whale is deposed,—the great sperm whale now reigneth!