50 HORSE AND MAN. 



hoof, when it belongs to the living animal, is a very 

 different instrument from the same hoof when dry. 

 In the latter state it is hard and unyielding, but in the 

 former, though hard on the exterior, it becomes gra- 

 dually softer in the interior, and is perfectly capable 

 of yielding to pressure. 



Similarly, ' whalebone,' as we popularly call it, 

 or ' baleen,' as it ought to be termed, is a kind of 

 horny structure, formed, like the hoof, of a vast 

 number of hair-like fibres fused together. The 

 whalebone of commerce is hard, and though very 

 elastic to a certain extent, is sure to snap if bent 

 too far. This is well exemplified by the pictorial 

 advertisements which meet, or rather which are 

 forced on our eyes at every turn, and which repre- 

 sent ladies in despair about their corsets, the ' bones ' 

 of which will break. 



But the baleen, as it exists in the living animal, 

 is a very different structure. It is many feet in 

 length, very nearly straight, as soft and pliable as 

 a fresh tendon, and quite as incapable of being broken 

 when bent. Indeed, it is so pliable, that when the 

 whale closes its mouth, the ends of the baleen slip into 

 a deep groove on either side of the lower jaw, the long 

 plates, or laminse, bending nearly at right angles. They 

 remain there until the animal opens its mouth, when 

 the baleen springs back again into its previous form. 



