Tin: 9UUVLAXD WHALB. 



Tin* brain of the Whale is companiti\el\ -mall; ,,n.-,,f a -|-, im.-n measuring nineteen 

 feet in length, weighed only tliiw ]>ounds and twelve ounces; licit i- one three thousandth 

 purl nf flu- whole boly. This is only almut two-thirds the weight t the largest human brain. 



I*ori>oises and Dolphin- have a larger brain. 



The senses of Whales are considerably Ix'yond our comprehension. With regard to sm.-ll, 

 ia reason to believe it has a good degree of this sense. 



Tin- origin of \isi..n is \tn-nn-ly small, comparaii \.-ly. Tlie largest Whale has an eye 

 not lario-r than that of an ox. 



The ear is not develop! xt.-nmlly. Hy careful examination in tin- vicinity <>f the eye, a 

 minute aperture is found not larger than an eighth of an inch in di:nn-t-r ; this corn-s|M>ndii/ 

 to ill,- extiTiial ear. 



The young are brought forth in much tin- sanu- manner a* those of land mammals. The 

 ]ieiiod of p-iation is supposed to be about nine months. The natural t-rm of lift- is thought 

 to be from twenty to a hundn-d years. 



The amount of oil yii-lded by the larger kind of Whales reaches nearly twenty tons. 



Tin- ]M-culiar substance called ambergris is common to all. It is a secretion produced in 

 the intestines. 



The size of Whales is a subject of much misapprehension. Captain Scoivsby says : 



"Of three hundred and twenty-two individuals, in the captun- of which I had jH-rsonally 

 been concerned, no one, I believe, ever exceeded sixty feet in length and the largest I 

 measured was fifty -eight." 



The immeas*' hulk of tin- Whalebone and 

 Sperm Whales is more surprising than their 

 li-nirtli. 



THE GREENLAND WHALE, NORTHKRN 



WH \i i . or Hi, .in \\'n \i i . as it i- in.lilf.-i 

 ently termed, is an inhabitant of tin- N mi hern 

 Seas, where it is still found in LTeat abnndann-. 

 although the constant iH-rs^-cutions to which it 

 ha.s been subjected have con-id-ral>ly thinned 

 ite numbers. 



Tliis animal is, when full-grown, about 

 sixty or seventy feet in length, and its j;irth 



about thirty or forty feet. Its color is velvety or *ow u 



black upon the upper part of the body, the 



tin- and the tail ; gray upon the junction of the tail with the l-l\ and the l-a-- of the tin-, an<l 

 white upon the abdomen and the fore-part of the lower jaw. The velvety asjiect of the body is 

 caused by the oil which exudes from the epidermis, and aids in d.-stroyim: the friction of tin- 

 wat.-r. Its head is remarkably large, being about one-third of the length of the entire bulk. 

 The jaw opens very far l>ack. and in a lanre Whale is about sixteen feet in length, seven feet 

 u i'l--. an<l TI-U or twelve feet in height, affording space, as has quaintly been remarked, for a 

 ]olly-boat and her crew to float in. 



The most curious part of the jaw and its structure is the remarkable substance which 

 is popularly known by the name of W ha lei Mine. This substance is repii--.-nti| in its 

 natural position in the accompanying illustration, which is taken from a photographic 

 jiortrait of the skeleton in the great Museum of Comparative Anatomy at the Jardin des 

 IMant.-s. 



The Whalebone, or baleen, is found in n series of plates, thick and solid at the insertion 

 into the jaw, and splitting at the extremity into a multitude of hair-like fringe. On each 

 side of the jaw there are more than three hundred of these plate*, which in a fine specimen 

 are about ten or twelve feet long, and eleven inches wide at their base. The weight of baleen 

 w-hii-h is funii-hed by a large Whale is alxmt one ton. This -ub-tance does not take its origin 

 dir-ctly from the gum, but from a j-<-iiliar vascular formation which rests upon it. These 



