130 ARCTIC ZOOLOGY. 



found to envy an adventure of such description. The 

 legislature has placed ample protection over this trade, 

 holding forth every encouragement to men of enterprise 

 and capital to promote it. The late long war has also 

 contributed to make it a sort of monopoly to the British 

 merchant ; but when the yearly diminution that at present 

 exists has continued, whales in the northern seas will become 

 as scarce as wolves in Britain. 



Balcena Mysticetiis (the tinner) bears a great resem- 

 blance to the former, in the generic character of the 

 double spiracle on the crown, but ditiers from it in having, 

 at the extremity of the dorsal vertebrae, a soft fin. 



The finner is seen traversing the ocean between New- 

 foundland and the British islands, in numbers ; but in the 

 months in which the blubber whale sallies forth from his 

 haunts, they are observed running towards the arctic seas, 

 and are considered good guides to the whale's retreats. 

 Like that animal, the place of teeth in the mouth is sup- 

 plied by horny laminae imbedded in the frontal bone ; but 

 in the finner, those laminae are shorter, and of a blue 

 colour, which, from whatever cause proceeding, renders it 

 less fit for the impression of those colouring materials, by 

 which the common whale-bone is adapted to so many use- 

 ful and elegant purposes. The finner being also much 

 thinner in blubber, of course more slender, though gene- 

 rally surpassing the blubber whale in length of body, is 



