THE HUMPBACK WHALE. 41 
lower one about fifteen inches. The tongue and throat were of a leaden color. 
The orbit of the eye was four inches in diameter. The longest plate of bone, or 
baleen, was two feet ; its color, black, with a fringe of lighter shade. 
2. Sex, female. Color of body, black, with slight marks of white beneath. 
Color of pectorals, black above, white below. Color of flukes, black above and 
below. Color of blubber, white ; average thickness of same, six inches. Yield of 
oil, thirty barrels. Gular folds, eighteen. Tubercles on lips, nine. 
Ft. In. Ft. In. 
Length of animal 48 From nib- end to pectorals 1G 6 
Length of pectorals 13 Notch of flukes to anus 11 G 
Breadth of pectorals 3 Notch of flukes to genital slit 12 
Thickness of jjectorals 8 Length of longest haleen 2 9 
Expansion of flukes 14 Breadth of longest haleen 10 
Breadth of flukes 4 3 
3. Sex, female. Color of body, black above, slightly mottled with white and 
gray below. Fins and flukes, black above, white beneath. Color of blubber, white ; 
thickness of same, six to nine inches. Yield of oil, forty barrels. Number of 
laminae, five hundred and forty ; black, streaked with white, or light lead color. 
Ft. In. Ft. In. 
Length of animal 52 End of lower jaw to eye 12 5 
Length of pectoral 12 Length of longest haleen 2 8 
Width of pectoral 3 G Breadth of longest haleen 9 
Eud of lower jaw to spiracles 10 Length of fringe to baleen 5 
End of lower jaw to corner of mouth. . . 11 9 
It is proper to state, that the dimensions of the skull, or upper jaw-bone, of 
any ordinary sized animal would be about fifteen feet long by six broad. The 
lower jaw-bones, which are joined by a slight symphysis, are each about the same 
length in their curves, and are about one foot wide and eight inches thick midway 
between the extremities. The thickness of the lumbar vertebrce is about eight 
inches ; the distance between the points of the spurs, two feet eight inches ; and 
the weight, twenty -four or more pounds. The largest ribs are from nine to twelve 
feet long, measured on the curve, and ten to fifteen inches in circumference. The 
aggregate weight of two well -dried specimens (measuring respectively nine and ten 
feet) was eighty pounds. The first joint of the pectoral bones may be set down 
at two and a half feet in length, and the same in circumference at its union with 
the shoulder-blade. This section of the fin bones exceeds fifty pounds in weight. 
The usual color of the Humpback is black above, a little lighter below, slightly 
marbled with white or gray ; but sometimes the animal is of spotless white under the 
Marine Mammals. — 6. 
