14 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



length to vary from eighty to a hundred and twenty-five 

 feet and upwards ; observing, however, that aged whales, 

 of uncommon dimensions, are occasionally captured. I 

 cannot help coinciding with the just observations of that 

 truly scientific clergyman, the Rev. William Scoresby, 

 of Exeter,* which I here quote: he says, "of three 

 hundred and twenty-two individuals, in the capture of 

 which I had personally been concerned, no one, I 

 believe, ever exceeded sixty feet in length; and the 

 largest I ever measured was fifty-eight from one ex- 

 tremity to the other, this being the largest I ever saiv.'' 

 An uncommonly large whale is stated (I believe by the 

 same gentleman) to have been caught near Spitzbergen, 

 about twenty years ago : the baleen, or, as it is impro- 

 perly called, whalebone, measured almost fifteen feet long, 

 but the animal was not more than seventy feet ; and the 

 longest common Greenland whale I ever heard of was 

 one mentioned by the late Sir Charles Guisecke, who 

 informs us that, in the spring of 1813, one was killed 

 at Godhawn, measuring sixty-seven feet : but these are 

 rare instances. I therefore consider that sixty feet may 

 be the average dimensions of the larger animals of this 

 species, and that sixty-five feet is a magnitude which but 

 rarely occurs. 



In these remarks, I wish the reader to observe that I 

 allude only to one species of whale, the bdlcena mysti- 

 cHus ; for the other species not unfrequently exceed this 

 in size. The balambptera r6rqucd,f or broad-nosed 



* This gentleman was formerly a captain in the Greenland whale 

 fishery, as it is erroneously denominated ; and his works prove him to 

 be a man of sterling scientific attainments. I shall occasionally quote his 

 remarks, as I proceed, under the cognomen of Captain Scoresby, by 

 which he is more generally known. 



t An engraving of this species is inserted in a subsequent part of 

 the work, with a description of the anatomv of the skeleton. 



