THE BOWIIEAD, OR GREAT POLAR WHALE. 53 
inch in extent, and in some individuals they are so minute that it is with the 
greatest difficulty they can be discovered. An immense caudal fin, which forms the 
posterior limb and extremity of the body, is from sixteen to twenty feet in exten- 
sion, and in shape thick, broad, lunate, and notched in the centre of the posterior 
edge, while the extremities are somewhat rounded. 
I am indebted to Captain J. F. Poole, formerly of the American bark JV. 8. 
Perkins, for the measurements and memoranda of a mysticetus, forty -seven feet in 
length, which was taken in the Arctic Ocean, August, 1867 ; and to Captain G. L. 
Smith, of the American bark Vineyard, for similar statements of one forty -five feet 
long, taken in the same ocean during the season of 1870, as follows:* 
CAPTAIN POOLES WHALE. 
Sex, female. Color, black on back and sides ; throat white ; also, occasional 
white spots on under side of body. Yield of oil, eighty barrels (the whale was 
judged large enough ordinarily to have yielded one hundred and fifty barrels of oil). 
Ft. In. 
Length of animal 47 
Length of pectorals 8 
Breadth of pectorals 4 
Distance from nib-end to spout-holes 16 
Length of spout-holes 1 
Distance from corner of mouth to nib -end 17 10 
Extension of flukes 19 
Thickest blubber 1 4 
Average thickness of blubber 11 
Thickness of black skin on back 1 
Length of genital slit 1 10 
Distance from genital slit to vent 4 
Distance from genital slit to flukes 9 
Length of longest bone or baleen 10 6 
Length of fringe or hair on bone f 2 
Breadth of longest bone 1 01 
The bone was imbedded in the gum of the jaw ten inches. Number of layers 
of bone on each side of jaw, three hundred and thirty; J weight of largest slab of 
* We regret that our measurements of Bow- f Two feet may be regarded as nearly twice 
heads, taken in Tchantar Bay, 1862, were lost the usual length. 
in changing from one vessel to another the fol- , { This may be a fair average, and 370 is the 
lowing year. highest number we have counted. 
