THE GREENLAND WHALE. 83 



nearly solid ; the number, according to the late Sir 

 Charles Giesecki, is thirteen pair. 



The sense of hearing in the mysticetus is pro- 

 bably very different in air and water. A noise in 

 the air, such as that produced by a person shouting, 

 is not noticed by it, though at a distance only of a 

 ship's length; but a very slight splashing in the 

 water, in calm weather, excites its attention and 

 alarms it. 



Being somewhat lighter than the medium in 

 which it swims, the mysticetus can remain at the 

 surface with its spiracles and a considerable portion 

 of its back above water, without any effort or mo- 

 tion. To descend, however, requires an exertion. 

 The proportion which appears above water, when 

 alive, is probably not a twentieth part of the animal ; 

 but, within a day after death, when the process of 

 putrefaction commences, it swells to an enormous 

 size, till at last a third of the carcase appears above 

 water, and sometimes the body is burst by the force 

 of the air generated within. 



Bulky as the whale is, and clumsy as it appears 

 to be, it might be imagined that all its motions 

 must be sluggish, and its greatest exertions pro- 

 ductive of no great celerity. The fact, however, is 

 the reverse. A whale extended motionless at the 

 surface of the sea, can sink, in the space of five or 

 six seconds, beyond the reach of its human enemies. 

 Its velocity along the surface, and in other direc- 

 tions, is the same. I have observed, says Scorseby, 

 a whale descending, after I had harpooned it, to the 



