260 CRUISE OF THE NEPTUNE 
Female whales are larger and fatter than the males, so that 
a female will have an average of about ten more tons of blubber 
than an ordinary male. As will be seen from the above measure- 
ments, the head equals about a third of the length of the body, 
and the upper jaw, which carries the baleen or whalebone, is 
only a few feet shorter. The baleen is in the form of thin slabs 
or ' splits ' set close together in the gum at right-angles to the 
length of the jaw-bone. At the base the splits are from six to 
twelve inches wide and from a quarter to nearly an inch in 
thickness. They taper slowly to their free end, and terminate 
in long hairs which extend upwards of six inches beyond the 
solid bone. Similar hairs are found along the inside of the 
bone. There are about 360 of these Splits on each side of the 
jaw, and they are placed so as to slope backwards. The longest 
or ' size split ' is in the middle of the side of the jaw, and the 
others decrease in length in front and behind. It derives its 
name from being the split by which the length and weight of 
the bone is computed. The longest split recorded measured 
fourteen feet in length, but the ordinary length in adult whales 
is from nine to ten feet. Bone of that length will average nearly 
a ton weight to a whale. Bone six feet and under brings only 
half the price of longer bone. The laminae are usually pale- 
blue; in the young they are sometimes green and black; in older 
whales nearly black, and occasionally striped white and black. 
This bone in the whale's mouth acts as a swab or sieve to 
entangle and collect the small animals upon which it feeds. The 
lower lip is very deep, and when closed fits close to the head, the 
edge forming 'a bow as it curves backwards from the front. 
When feeding, this lip is let down, so that it projects nearly at 
right-angles, forming a sort of trough and conducting the water, 
as the whale moves through it, 'to the tangle of hairs of the 
exposed bone. When sufficient food has been collected the lip 
is closed and the food removed from the baleen by the broad 
