BAL&NA. 263 
double aperture, and in being directed forwards as in most mammals, 
instead of upwards and backwards as in the dolphins. The whale 
produces generally one at a birth, which it suckles for some length of 
time. The mammez are pudendal. The right whales have no fin on 
the back ; those that have form a separate genus, Balenoftera, i.e. fin- 
whales. 
They are the most valuable of the cetacea, except perhaps the 
cachelot or sperm whale, as producing the greatest amount of oil and 
whalebone. Of the various species the most sought after is the Green- 
land or right whale (BaZena mysticetus), which ordinarily attains a length 
of fifty to sixty feet. An average whale between forty and fifty feet in 
Er, brain cavity; J J*, upper and lower jawbones; the arrows indicate narial passages ; S, spout- 
hole; W, whalebone; 7, tongue in dotted line; 7, nerve aperture in lower jaw; 40, bone 
sawed through. 
Skull of Baleen Whale. 
length will yield from sixty to eighty barrels of oil and a thousand 
pounds of baleen. 
Formerly all whaling vessels were sailers, but now powerful steam- 
ships are used, and the harpoon often gives way to the harpoon gun. 
A whale, when struck, will sometimes run out a mile of line before it 
comes up again, which is generally in about half an hour. The whalers 
judge as best they can, from the position of the line, in which direction 
he will rise, and get as near as possible so as to use the lance or drive 
in another harpoon. When killed, the animal is towed to the vessel and 
fastened on the port side, belly uppermost, and head towards the stern ; 
it is then strippedvof its blubber, the body being canted by tackles till 
