SEALS AND WHALES OF THE BRLTLSH SEAS- 57 



fish, is given by Captain A. H. Markham, in his ' WiiaUng Cruise to Baffin's 

 Bay.' * 



The usual length of a full-grown Right-whale is about 50 feet ; but Dr. 

 Brown, in his paper on the Cetaceans of the Greenland Seas {P. Z. S., 1868, 

 p. 539), gives the dimensions of one which measured 65 feet. The general 

 colour is black. The mouth occupies about one-third of the entire length, 

 and the baleen is from 10 to 12 feet long; it has been known to reach the 

 great length of 13 ft. 2 in., and 9 in. in width. This baleen, which is found 

 depending from the upper jaw, consists of a number of horny plates, similar 

 in structure to the horn of the rhinoceros, consisting of a fibrous mass 

 glutinated together in the solid portion, and placed transversely along either 

 side of the palate ; they are arranged closely together, with the external edge 

 smooth, and gradually thinning off towards the inner margin, which ends in 

 a fringe of long hair-like fibres : the number of laminae is about 300 on each 

 side.f Captain David Gray, of the Eclipse, an experienced whaler, in a 

 communication to 'Land and Water,' on December i, 1877, pointed out and 

 first satisfactorily explained the means by which these extraordinary appen- 

 dages are disposed of when the mouth of the Whale is closed. He shows 



* Space will not permit of more than a passing reference here, but much information as to the rise 

 and progress of the whale-fishery will be found in McCulloch's ' Dictionary of Commerce,' article 

 "Whale-fishery;" Scammon's 'Marine Mammals of the North-western coast of North America;' 

 Starbuck's 'History of the American Whale Fishery;' Mr. C. R. Markham's 'The Threshold of the 

 Unknown Region ; ' Capt. A. H. Markham's book above referred to ; and above all in Scoresby's 

 excellent works, which have been extensively laid under contribution by nearly all subsequent writers — 

 ' An Account of the Arctic Regions, with a History and Description of the Northern Whale-fishery ' 

 (2 vols., 1820), and ' A Journal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale-fishery,' in 1S22. 



t Blackstone mentions a curious old feudal law, to the effect "that on the taking of a Whale on 

 the coasts, which is a royal fish, it shall be divided between the king and queen ; the head only being 

 the king's property, and the tail of it the queen's. ' De Sturgione obse>-vetur, quod rex ilium habebit 

 integrum : de balena vera sufficit, si rex habeat caput, et regina caudam .' The reason of this whimsical 

 division, as assigned by our ancient records, was, to furnish the Queen's wardrobe with whalebone " ! — 

 Blackstone's ' Commentaries,' 17S3 edit., vol. i., p. 223. 



