CKTACEA. 71 



like minute laminae or scales, and which may be seen by the aid of a 

 microscope to invest the free bristles at the fringed extremity of the 

 plate. We have often observed the facility with which some baleen 

 can be spht up, and were struck with the fact that the baleen of 

 Bala>na maximiis would not split. The removal of the external 

 lamina in the plate under description shows the cause of this : about 

 6j inches from the root of the plate, many of the bristles have 

 deviated from their direct parallel inclination, and become intimately 

 twisted and interwoven Avith each other. It has been attempted to 

 prove the age of the Whale from an examination of the baleen, in the 

 same manner as we judge of the age of cattle by certain annulated 

 markings on the horns. On the plate before us we can distinctly 

 perceive numerous transverse lines crossing the course of the bristles 

 at right angles. If these transverse lines indicate a periodical check 

 to the growth of the baleen, then the age of the BalcBiia maximus 

 would be 800 to 900 years old, that being the number of transverse 

 lines on the longest plate of baleen. — Knox, Cat. Prep. Whah, 9. 



The baleen of the Bahence is alone designated Whalebone (or rather 

 Whale-Jin, as it is usually called) in commerce. The baleen of the 

 other genera of this family is called Finner-Jin or Hmnphaclc-Jin. 

 The wholesale dealers in baleen, in the ' London Directory,' are 

 called Whale-fin Merchants, and whalebone occurs under the name 

 of Whale-fin in the ' Price -current.' In the ' London New Price- 

 current' for 1843, the South Sea Whale-fin varied during that year 

 from 2001. to 3051. per ton ; and there is no price named for Green- 

 land Whale-fin. (See Maceull. Comm. Diet. i. 1344.) 



The baleen was formerly thought to be the tail of the animal. 

 (See Blackstone, Comment, i. 233, quoted by Macculloch, Comm. 

 Diet. i. 1344.) 



The skulls of the different genera differ considerably in external 

 form, from being nearly as wide as the lower jaw, as in Sihbaldius, 

 to being very narrow so as only to form a narrow central arch, as 

 in Balcena. The genera may be thus arranged according to the 

 width of the skull: — 1. Sibbaldius ; 2. Balcenojitera ; 3. Megaptera', 

 4. Physalus ; 5. Eiibakena ; 6. Balcena. 



The width chiefly depends on the lateral expansion of the maxilla. 

 In Balcena it is band-like ; and in Sibbaldius very broad, being more 

 than twice as wide as the intermaxillary bones. 



The food of the Whale is stiU a much-disputed point. It is now 

 generally admitted that the Mystketus lives only on small Medusas, 

 shrimps, &c., but that the other species of Whalebone Whale devour 

 inconceivable quantities of fish ; for instance, M. Desmoulins states 

 that " 600 great cod and an immensity (probably as many thousand) 

 of pilchards have been found in the stomach of a single Borqual.^' 



Mr.F. J.KnoXjin dissecting theBalama maximus,'wh.ic]\iii aBorqiial, 

 saw no caAdty in the course of the viscera which could have contained 

 six cod of ordinarj' size : that of B. minimus was empty, although 

 the Firth of Forth, particularly at and above Queensfeny, abounds 

 at all seasons with herrings and other fishes and their fry. The want 

 of teeth by no means renders it impossible that the Balcena with 



