480 GREAT MYSTICETE. 



it bears in the original work. Its honest simpli- 

 city and accuracy must apologize for its tedious- 

 ness. 



" The Whale," says Martens, " for whose sake 

 our ships chiefly undertake the voyage to Spits- 

 bergen, differs from other whales in his fins and his 



O ' 



mouth, which is without teeth, but instead there- 

 of hath long, black, and somewhat broad horny 

 flakes, all jagged like hairs. His fins are situated 

 at some distance behind the eyes, and are of a big- . 

 ness proportionable to the animal, covered with a 

 thick black skin, delicately marbled with white 

 or yellow strokes, or as you see in marble trees, 

 houses, or the like things represented ; or like the 

 veins in some kinds of wood. In the tail of one 

 of these fishes was marbled very delicately the 

 nurnber 1222, very even and exact, as if painted 

 upon it on purpose. This marbling or variega- 

 tion of the skin, which resembles parchment or 

 vellum, gives the Whale an incomparable beauty 

 and ornament. When the fins are cut, you find, 

 underneath the skin, bones that look like unto a 

 man's hand when it is opened and the fingers ex- 

 panded. Between these joints there are stiff 

 sinews, which fly up and rebound again if you 

 fling them hard against the ground, as the sinews 

 of a great fish, as of a sturgeon, or of some four- 

 footed beast would do. You may cut pieces of 

 these sinews of the bigness of your head ; they 

 squeeze together when thrown on the ground, 

 and so rebound very high, and as swift as an ar- 

 row from the string of a long bow. The Whale 



