THE GREENLAND WHALE. 77 



fragably established that the mysticetus at no time 

 ever exceeds sixty-fire or seventy feet/'' He him- 

 self was personally concerned in the captm-e of three 

 hundred and twenty-two, not one of which exceeded 

 sixty feet. He adds, that an uncommon whale 

 which was caught near Spitzbergen, the whalebone 

 of which measured ahnost fifteen feet, was not so 

 much as seventy feet in length ; and the largest ac- 

 tual measurement he has met with is that given by 

 the late Sir Charles Giesecki, who states that in 

 1813 a whale was killed at Godhaven of the length 

 of sixty-seven feet. Its greatest circumference is 

 from thirty to forty feet. 



When fully grown, therefore, the length may be 

 stated as varj-ing from fifty to sjxty-five, or very 

 rarely seventy feet. It is thickest a httle behind the 

 fins (see PI. ii.), near the middle of its whole length, 

 whence it gradually tapers in a conical form towaxds 

 the tail, and slightly towards the head. The head is 

 remarkably large, as is the case with the two suc- 

 ceeding genera, forming nearly one-third of the 

 whole bulk. The under part, the outline of which 

 is given by the jaw-bone, is flat, and measures from 

 sixteen to twenty feet in length, and from ten to 

 twelve in breadth. The lips, of corresponding di- 

 mensions, go to enclose the cavity of the mouth in 

 a very striking way. The upper jaw, including the 

 cro\Mi-bone, is bent down at its edges, hke a boat 

 upside down, so as to shut in the front and upper 

 parts of the cavity of the mouth. When the mouth 

 * See Edin. Phil. Journ. vol. i. 



