54 MARINE MAMMALS OF THE NORTH-WESTERN COAST. 
bone, seven pounds. The bone extends back of spout- holes in the throat three 
feet, and falls short of nib -end one foot. 
CAPTAIN SMITH'S WHALE. 
Sex, male ; color above and below, black. 
Ft. In. 
Length 45 
Girth in largest place ( behind pectorals ) 28 
Length of pectorals 7 3 
Breadth of pectorals 3 9 
Nib -end or nose to j>ectorals 18 8 
Corner of mouth to nib - end 16 
Eye to nib - end 16 
Spout- holes to nib - end 14 
Length of opening to spout -holes ( longitudinally ) 1 2 
Flukes from tip to tip 16 
"Width of flukes from notch to junction with the body 4 2 
Vent to flukes 8 10 
Genital slit to flukes 12 
Size around the " small " at genital slit 19 
Length of longest bone or baleen 9 6 
Width of longest bone or baleen 1 
Average thickness of blubber 9 
Color of blubber, slightly reddish. The number of layers of bone on each side 
of the jaw was three hundred and eight. The yield of oil was sixty barrels ; yield 
of bone, one thousand and fifty pounds. 
When the Bowhead feeds, it moves through its native element, either below or 
near the surface, with considerable velocity, its jaws being open, whereby a body 
of water enters its capacious mouth, and along with it the animalculas (termed by 
the whalemen "Eight Whale feed," or "brit"). The water escapes through the 
layers of baleen,* but the insect food is retained by the fine fringes on its inner 
edges, and is afterward swallowed. When not disturbed, the animal remains up, 
generally, to respire, from one and a half to two and a half minutes, during which 
time it spouts from six to nine times, and then disappears for the space of ten to 
twenty minutes. The volume of vapor ejected is similar to that of the Right Whale. 
Sometimes, when engaged in feeding, it remains down for twenty -five minutes or 
*For illustrations of layers of baleen, or ties); Eight WTiale of the North-western Coast, 
"slabs of bone," as named by whalers, see (Balcena Sieboldii?); Sulphurbottom, (Sibbaldius 
page 55, which shows the relative proportions sulfureus); Humpback (Megaptera versabilis); and 
of the baleen of the Bowhead, (Balcena mystice- the California Gray (Rhachianectes glaucus). 
