The Mighty Deep 



within by long dense supplies of hair. Similar 

 horny plates depend from the roof of the mouth. 

 Since the plates of this " baleen," as it is called, 

 are often ten or twelve feet long, and amount in 

 number to many hundreds, one cannot but 

 imagine that the whale's mouth must be packed 

 unpleasantly full of furniture. But they have 

 their use. 



As he swims he holds his mouth habitually 

 open somewhat after the fashion of the Pelican- 

 fish and into the vast cave flow multitudes of 

 small creatures of every kind and description. 



Presently a good supply has been collected, all 

 lying on the enormous tongue, a mass of flesh 

 often as big as a room, some eighteen feet long 

 by ten wide. 



He then nearly closes his jaws, and forces out 

 the water. But the dense hairy fringes hold 

 back the living creatures, which he proceeds to 

 swallow. After which he again goes forward, 

 open-mouthed, as before. 



In a good many respects the Sperm Whale is 

 a contrast to the Greenland Whale. 



He too is of leviathan-like dimensions ; gener- 

 ally from sixty to seventy feet in length, and not 

 more slender as to his waist. But only the male 

 Sperm boasts these proportions. The female is, 



256 



