A BOOK OF WHALES 



CHAPTER I. 



THE EXTERNAL FORM OF WHALES 

 SIZE OF WHALES 



SINCE the most obvious characteristic of the 

 whale tribe is their large, occasionally colossal, 

 bulk, we cannot do better than commence with this 

 salient peculiarity. Whales vary in length, from 

 barely four feet (Pontoporiaf* to as much as 80 or 

 85 (Balanoptera sibbaldii}. But their dimensions 

 have been grossly exaggerated by modern writers as 

 well as by the ancients, for whom there was more 

 excuse. It is an unquestionable fact that no creature, 

 known to science, ever existed f which was larger than 

 the largest whale ; even the colossal Dinosaurs of the 

 secondary epoch fell some feet short of Balcenoptera 

 sibbaldii. As a consequence, size is the one thing 



* Lesson saw a smaller dolphin still (which has been named Delphinus 

 minimus), only two feet long. But more facts are wanted before this 

 most dwarfish of Cetacea can be admitted. 



t Unless the newly-discovered Dinosaur, referred to below under 

 Balcenoptera. 



B 



