14 CALIFORNIA MAMMALS. 



"The tongue yields oil like the mysticetus, but its baleen is 

 shorter and of a coarser and less flexible nature. The average 

 product of oil of the Balxna japonica may be set down as one 

 hundred and thirty barrels. The amount of bone ranges from 

 one thousand to fifteen hundred pounds. 



"In former times the Right Whales were found on the coast 

 of Oregon, and occasionally in large numbers. The few fre- 

 quenting the coast of California are supposed to be merely strag- 

 glers for their northern haunts." (Scammon.) 



Genus Rhachianectes Cope:. (Spine — Swimming.) 



No dorsal fin; pectoral fin narrow, enclosing the bones of but 

 four fingers; head comparatively small, baleen short, coarse; cer- 

 vical vertebrae free; skin of throat with two longitudinal furrows. 



Rhachianectes glaucus Cope. (\Miitish blue.) 



CALIFORNIA GRAY WHALE. 



Size medium; color varying from light mottled gray to 

 nearly black. 



Length of female about forty feet ; male is smaller. 



Pacific coast of North America. 



"The California Gray Whale is unlike the species of Balcena 

 in its colors, being of a mottled gray, very light on some individ- 

 uals, while others, both male and female, are nearly black. Un- 

 der the throat are two longitudinal folds, which are about fifteen 

 inches apart and six feet in length. The eye is situated about 

 five inclies above and six inches behind the angle of the mouth. 

 The ear, which appears externally like a mere slit in the skin, two 

 and a half inches in length, is about eighteen inches behind the 

 eyes and a little above it. The length of the female is forty to 

 forty-four feet; its greatest cicumference twenty-eight to thirty 

 feet ; its flukes thirty inches in depth and ten to twelve feet broad ; 

 its pectorals about six and one-half feet in length and three feet 

 in width, tapering from near the middle toward the ends, which 



