CtASsIV. COMMON WHALE. 51 



The head is very much difproportioned to the 

 fize of the body, being one-third the fize of the 

 fifh : the under lip is much broader than the up- 

 per. The tongue is corhpofed of a foft fpongy fat, 

 capable of yielding five .pr fix barrels of oil. The 

 gullet is very fmall for fo vaft a fifh, not exceeding 

 four inches in width. In the middle of the head 

 are two orifices, thro' which it fpouts water to a 

 vail height, and with a great noife, efpecialiy when 

 difturbed or wounded. 



The eyes are no larger than thofe of an ox. 



On the back there is no fin, but on the fideSj 

 beneath each eye, are two large ones. 



The penis is eight feet in length, inclofed in 

 a ftrong fheath. The teats in the female are placed 

 in the lower^part of the belly. 



The tail is broad and femilunar. 



This whale varies in color : the back of fome 

 being red, the belly generally white. Others are 

 black, fome mottled, others quite white, according 

 to the obfervation of Marten, who fays, that their 

 colors in the water are extremely beautiful, and 

 that their ikin is very fmooth and flippery. 



What is called whalebone adheres to the upper Whale. 

 jaw, and is formed of thin parallel lamina?, fome 



bones and jaws, both Strabo, Lib. XV. and Pliny, Lib. IX. 

 c. 3. relate, that the natives made their houfes, ufing the 

 jaws for door-cafes. This method of building was formerly 

 pra&ifed by the inhabitants of Greenland, as we find from 

 Frebijher, in his fecond voyage, p. 18, publifhed in 1587. 



E 2 of 



BONE. 



