THE GREENLAND WHALE. 523 
This member is very curious in its structure, for, as may be seen by reference to the 
rorqual skeleton, the Whales have no hinder limbs that may be modified into fins, as is the 
case with the seals, and are forced to depend solely on the soft structures for its powers of 
locomotion. The traces of hinder limbs are to be found in some little bones that lie 
loosely in the flesh, but they are of no real use, and are only representatives of the true 
limbs. 
The tail of these animals is an enormously powerful organ, set transversely upon the 
body, and driving the creature forward by its powerful vertical sweeps. With such 
wonderful strength i is the tail endowed, that the largest Whales, measuring some eighty 
feet in length, are able by its aid to leap clear out of the water, as if they were little fish 
leaping after flies. This movement is technically termed “breaching,” and the sound 
which is produced by the huge carcase as it falls upon the water is so powerful as to be 
heard for a distance of several miles. The length of the tail is, in the larger Whales, 
about five or six feet, but it is often more than twenty feet in breadth. The substance of the 
tail is remarkably strong, being composed of three lay ers of tendinous fibres. When taken 
from the animal it is largely used in the manufacture of clue. 
The skin of the Whales is devoid of hair, and is of a rather peculiar structure, as is 
needful to enable it to resist the enormous pressure to which it is constantly subjected at 
the vast depths to which the animal descends. ‘The skin is threefold, consisting first of 
the scarf-skin, or epidermis ; secondly, of the rete-mucosum, which gives colour to the 
animal; and thirdly, of the true skin, which is modified in order to meet the needs of the 
creature which it defends. The blubber, indeed, is nothing more than the true skin, which 
is composed of a number of interlacing fibres, capable of containing a very great amount 
of oily matter. This blubber is never less than several inches in thickness, and in many 
places is nearly two feet deep, and as elastic as caoutchouc, offering an admirable 
resistance to the force of the waves and the pressure of the water. Ina large Whale the 
blubber will weigh thirty tons. 
None of the Whales are able to turn their heads, for the vertebre of the neck are 
fused together into one mass, and compressed into a very small space. 
The GREENLAND WHALE, NORTHERN WHALE, or RIGHT WHALE, as it is indifferently 
termed, is an inhabitant of the Northern Seas, where it is still found in great abundance, 
although the constant persecutions 
to which it has been subjected have 
considerably thinned its numbers. 
This animal is, when full-grown, 
about sixty or seventy feet in length, 
and its girth about thirty or forty 
feet. Its colour is velvety black 
upon the upper part of the body, 
the fins and the tail; grey upon the 
junction of the tail with the body 
and the base of the fins, and white 
upon the abdomen and the fore-part 
of the lower jaw. The velvety aspect 
of the body is caused by the oil 
which exudes from the epidermis, 
and aids in destroying the friction 
of the water. Its head is remarkably ay dle 
large; being about one-third of the oe (torch te WERIeeo nea 
length of the entire bulk. The jaw 
opens very far back, and in a ee 
Whale is about sixteen feet in length, seven feet wide, and ten or twelve feet in height, 
affording space, as has quaintly been remarked, for a jolly -boat and her crew to float in. 
The most curious part of the jaw and its structure is the remarkable substance which is 
popularly known by the name of Whalebone. This substance is represented in its natural 
