26 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



wide, that when opened two men might enter it with- 

 out stooping. 



Both jaws are completely divested of teeth, the place 

 of which is supplied, in the upper, by two rows of 

 lamina, denominated " baleen," or " whalebone," or, 

 as Captain Scoresby calls them, "fins" which are sus- 

 pended from the sides of the crown-bone. Each of these 

 is composed of a number of stiff hairs, or bristles, placed 

 longitudinally, side by side. They are united together, 

 and connected to the upper part of the mouth, or crown- 

 bone, by a species of rabbet, with a peculiar glutinous 

 substance, which is denominated the gum: this is 

 white, fibrous, tender, and tasteless, cutting like cheese, 

 and bearing some resemblance to the kernel of a 

 cocoa-nut. When dried, it produces on each piece 

 of baleen a smooth and shining surface, like scales of 

 horn. 



These whalebones, or baleen, taken separately, are of 

 an elongated form, but curved a little in their length, 

 like a scythe, diminishing insensibly in elevation and 

 thickness from base to point. (See fig. 1, p. 29.) Their 

 edge, which is trenchant on the inferior side, is a little 

 concave. They are furnished from bottom to top with 

 a species of disunited bristles, forming a kind of hinge, 

 which is more tufted and longer the more it approaches 

 the extremity of the whalebone. At the extremity of 

 each series, it is curved and flattened down, so as to 

 present a smooth surface to the lips. In some whales, 

 a curious hollow on one side, with a ridge on the other, 

 occurs in many of the central blades of baleen, at regu- 

 lar intervals of six or seven inches, but for what pur- 

 pose we are unacquainted. 



The general colour of these horny laminee is a blueish 



