bal.t:nid^. / i 



smaller pieces, when softened, are split by a small machine into 

 very narrow strips like bristles, and used for bristles to make 

 brooms, &c. 



For every economical purpose the Greenland " fins " are preferred, 

 and last much longer, even when divided into the false bristles ; and 

 the Greenland fin will alone do for the finer work, such as the strips 

 for plaiting for bonnets, or to make ladies' riding-whips, or the 

 covering of telescopes and other tubes ; the white strips for these 

 purposes being taken from pale longitudinal lines on the enamel of 

 the Greenland fins. 



The Australian baleen of Balcana marginata is nearly equally fine, 

 and if imported might, from its natural white colour, be very useful 

 for many economical purposes, notwithstanding its small size. 



There is a dried foetus of this whale in the Derby Museum at 

 Liverpool ; the upper Hp is very large and dependent : and a similar 

 di'ied foetus in the Museum of the Philosophical Society of Hull. 

 I could not observe any appearance, even a rudiment, of the baleen ; 

 but the mouth is closed. 



The following paragraph from the ' Daily News ' of the 20th of 

 December, 1849, gives some idea of the quantity of whalebone now 

 used : — " The receipts of whalebone in the IJnited States since 

 January have been 2,285,095 lbs., and the exports to date were as 

 follows:— To North Europe, 587,926 lbs. ; to France, 515,351 lbs. ; 

 to Great Britain, 378,449 lbs. ; to other parts, 9296 lbs., making a 

 total export of 1,491,022 lbs. The receipts for the last eight years 

 were 18,912,200 lbs., and the exports 11,299,811 lbs. The quantity 

 taken for consumption during the same period was 7,612,389 lbs. 

 The stock in the United States at that date was estimated at 903,000 

 lbs. : viz. in New Bedford and Fairhaven, 368,000 lbs. ; New York, 

 275,000 lbs. ; in aU other places, 260,000 lbs." 



These whales yield the train oil of commerce ; but train appears 

 to be appUed by the whalers as we use drain ; they refer to the train 

 of the blubber when speaking of the oil of Dolphins, &c., and appear 

 to call all blubber-oil train, in contradistinction to head-matter, or 

 spermaceti, which Sibbald says is called " ivhale-sJiot " by the English ; 

 it is stiU so called by the Dutch whalers. 



As the elongated form of the periotic bones and the more or less 

 rhombic form of the tympanic bone are characteristic of the Right 

 Whales or the family Balamidai, so the tympanic portion of each 

 species has a peculiar and specific form, and may be used for the 

 specific character of the species, in the same manner as I have shown, 

 in the ' Zoology of the Erebus and Terror,' that the existence of 

 several species of Right Whales may be proved, and, indeed, the 

 species characterized, by the form and the internal structure of the 

 baleen. 



Unfortunately, when species arc determined from these characters, 

 the outer form of the animal is unknown ; and, unless the ear-bones 

 and baleen are obtained from the same specimen, there is the fear 

 that one may be giving two names — one characterized by the ear- 

 bone, and the other by the baleen of the same animal, and vice versa. 



