THE ORDER CETACEA. 45 



pepper, eats not unlike tough beef; that of the old 

 whale approaches to black, and is exceedingly coarse. 



Most of the bones forming the skeleton of the whale 

 are very porous, and contain large quantities of fine oil.* 

 The inferior jaw-bones, which measure from twenty to 

 twenty-five feet in length, are often taken care of on 

 account of the oil that drains out of them, when they 

 come into a warm climate. When exhausted of oil they 

 readily swim in water. The external surface is the 

 most compact and hard. The ribs are pretty nearly 

 solid, and, according to the late Sir Charles Giesecke", 

 the ribs are thirteen on each side, but the skeleton of 

 the B. Rorqual, lately exhibiting at Charing Cross, had 

 fourteen. 



From the peculiarity of structure in the fin, the Rev. 

 Dr. Fleming has named them "swimming j)aws."f 



The posterior extremity of the whale as already men- 

 tioned is the tail, which is the termination of the spine 

 into the ossa coccygis, which runs through the middle of 

 it, almost to the edge. 



Few opportunities of examining the internal structure 

 and peculiarities of the B. Mysticetus occur ; hence, 

 what is known respecting its anatomy is deduced prin- 

 cipally from its analogy to other cetaceous animals of 

 the same genus, although of a smaller species, which 

 have come accidentally up the rivers, or entered the 

 harbours of Great Britain. 



There is no certainty respecting the longevity of the 

 whale. It may be presumed, however, that indivi- 

 duals of the larger species may have lived (according to 

 the opinion of Baron Cuvier) more than a thousand 



* The oil obtained from the interior of the bones is considered far su- 

 perior to that derived from the blubber : it is, in fact, the " marroio." 

 t Fleming's " Philosophy of Zoology,"' &o 



