72 



VERTEBRATES I MAMMALS. 



The Great Green- 

 land, or Right Whale, 

 B. mysticetus, Linn., at- 

 tains the length of sev- 

 enty feet, and is some- 

 times furnished with 

 blubber two or three 

 feet in thickness. This 

 species supplies the 

 black, flexible whale- 

 bone, in slabs of eight 

 to ten feet in length, 

 an individual yielding 

 six to nine hundred 

 strips or slabs on each 

 side of the palate. It 

 also furnishes more oil 

 than any other whale, 

 a single individual 

 yielding, in some cases, 

 one hundred and twen- 

 ty tuns. The Right 

 Whale is confined to 

 the frigid regions, "and 

 is common to the North 

 Atlantic and North Pa- 

 cific, but is never found 

 in the tropics. It has 

 the seven cervical ver- 

 tebrae consolidated in- 

 to one. 



B. australis is a spe- 

 cies confined to the 

 Antartic regions, and 

 is smaller than the 

 Greenland Whale. 



Fig. 59- 



Right Whale, B. mysticetns, Linn. 



