THE ARCTIC SEAS. \tf 



thinness of its blubber, and the shortness of its 

 whalebone, render it of far less value than the other 

 species ; besides which, its swiftness, strength, and 

 determination, render it a hazardous enemy to en- 

 counter. Hence it is usually avoided by the whalers, 

 though the adventurous inhabitants of the Arctic 

 shores of Europe do not hesitate to attack it. It 

 is worthy of our notice, however, on account of its 

 affording an instance of what has been called, in 

 an examination of the care of Almighty God over 

 his inferior creatures, the principle of compensation. 

 When any organ, or set of organs that answer pur- 

 poses very important in the economy of an animal, 

 are removed in a kindred species with similar habits, 

 or are so modified as no lono-er to serve the same 



o 



purpose, some new structure is bestowed upon it, 

 to supply the lack of that which is removed. TVe 

 have seen how the Whale feeds, by receiving into its 

 mouth a large quantity of water, which is filtered 

 through the whalebone. In order to this, the mouth 

 is made very capacious by the bowing over of the 

 upper jaws in the form of a high arch, the blades of 

 whalebone filling up the bow. But in the Rorqual 

 the two jaws are nearly straight, and the blades vary 

 little in length, so that thus far the cavity of the 

 mouth is inconsiderable. Here comes in the com- 

 pensation : the lower part of the mouth (or, exter- 

 nally, the chin and throat), instead of being stretched 

 tightly across the branches of the lower jaw, are 

 wrinkled up into many longitudinal folds, which, 

 when the water rushes into the mouth, expand and 

 make a capacious pouch or bag. On shutting the 



