GIANTS OF THE DEEP 313 



known as "baleen," and from them the "whalebone" of commerce 

 is furnished. They are from two to three hundred in number, 

 and the central ones sometimes attain a length of seventeen feet. 

 The inside edges of these plates are found to be the longest, and 

 if these are carefully examined it will be observed that they are 

 "frayed out, as it were, into a close fringe of detached fibres of 

 whalebone. As the Whale shoots through the water with the large 

 mouth widely open, a large quantity of the marine molluscs and 

 crustaceans before mentioned are taken in. When the mouth is 

 now closed, the tongue, which resembles a lump of fat, and is 

 firmly united to the floor of the mouth, is applied to the central 

 part of the palate, which is devoid of baleen, and to the fringes 

 of the baleen plates. In this way the water is forced out of the 

 mouth, while the minute molluscs, crustaceans, etc., which have 

 been caught in the fringes of the baleen are forced into the 

 oesophagus. Anything left behind in this sieve is washed back 

 by the next inflowing current of water." 



We thus see that the mouth of this giant of the deep may be 

 compared to a sort of huge bucket arrangement, and this accounts 

 for the enormous size of the head and the length of the jaws. 

 Indeed, the head is responsible for a quarter to one-third of the 

 entire length of the body. 



The reader has no doubt noticed the saliva which issues from 

 the mouth of a Cow, or some other animal, but this is not present 

 in the Whale, as the food being itself extremely slimy, salivary 

 glands are unnecessary ; and another feature of interest which may 

 be referred to before passing on, is that "whilst in all other 

 mammals the food passes above the larynx " (which on that account 

 is provided with a lid), "in the Whale it passes around it, the 

 larynx being firmly wedged into the lower nasal aperture" (in the 

 throat). "This arrangement enables the Whale to breathe and 

 swallow food simultaneously." 



It is as well to recognize that little doubt exists as to the evolution 

 of these giant beasts. They are in no way closely related to 

 fishes, for they breathe, as we have seen, atmospheric air, and have 

 no trace whatever of gills. Again, careful examination reveals 

 traces of a one-time hairy covering — which is so characteristic a 

 coat worn by mammals — and whilst it is difficult to accurately 

 determine the terrestrial mammals most closely related to the 

 Whales, it seems, agreed by zoologists that they have derived their 



