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NATURAL HISTORY. 



Account of the Balcena Mysticelus, or Great Northern or Greenland 

 Whale*. By Mr. W. Scoresbyjunr. M.W.S. 



THE whale, when full grown, is 

 from 50 to 65 feet in length, 

 and from 30 to 40 in circumfer- 

 ence, immediately before the 6ns f' 

 It is thickest a little behind the 

 fins, and from thence gradually 

 tapers towards the tail, and slight- 

 ly towards the neck. It is cylin- 

 drical from the neck until near 

 about the junction of the tail and 

 body, where it becomes ridged. 



The head has a triangular shape. 

 The bones of the head are very 

 porous, and full of a fine kind of 

 oil. When the oil is drained out, 

 the bone is so light as to swim in 

 water. The jaw-bones, the most 

 striking portions of the head, are 

 from 20 to 25 feet in length, are 

 curved, and the space between 

 them is 9 or 10 feet, by 18 or 20. 

 They give shape to the under part 

 of the head, which is almost per- 

 fectly flat, and is about 20 feet in 

 length, by 12 in breadth. The 

 tongue is of great size, and yields a 

 ton or more of oil. The lips, which 

 are at right angles to the flat part 

 of the base of the head, are firm 



and hard, and yield about two tons 

 of oil. 



To the upper jaw is attached 

 the substance called xvhalebone, 

 which is straight in some indi- 

 viduals, and in others convex. The 

 laminae or blades, are not all of 

 equal length, neither are the larg- 

 est exactly in the middle of the 

 series, but somewhat nearer the 

 throat; from this point they become 

 gradually shorter each way. In each 

 side of the mouth are about 200 

 laminae of whalebone. They are 

 not perfectly flat ; for besides the 

 longitudinal curvature already men- 

 tioned, they are curved transverse- 

 ly. The largest laminae are from 10 

 to 14- feet in length, very rarely 15 

 feet in length. The breadth of the 

 largest at the thick ends, or where 

 they are attached to the jaw, is 

 about a foot. The Greenland 

 fishers estimate the size of the 

 whale by the length of the whale- 

 bone : where the whalebone is six 

 feet long, there the whale is said to 

 be a sizejish. In suckers, or young 

 whales still under the protection of 



• From the Memoirs of the Wernerian Society, vol. i. p. S78. 



+ It is said that the whale was formerly much larger than it is at present, being 

 sometimes 100 or 120 feet long : but thd accuracy of this statement is to be 

 questioned ; for the largest I ever heard of being caught did not exceed feet in 

 length ; and this was reckoned a very uncommon individual. Of about 200 which 

 1 have seen taken, not one measured 65 feet in length, although many of them were 

 full grown. 



