256 CETACEA. 



number on each side, the longest often fifteen feet long ; the 

 Baleen of the Balaena alone is designated as Whalebone, or 

 Whalefin, as it is called in commerce. That of the other genera, 

 (Bal&noptera and Megaptera.) is called Finner-Fin, or Hump- 

 back-Fin ; the tongue is very large, thick and fleshy, fat, soft 

 and spongy, not unfrequently twenty feet long, and nine or ten 

 wide. The blubber obtained from these whales is extremely 

 abundant, a single whale often yielding forty tuns, or three 

 hundred and twenty barrels of thirty-one and a half gallons 

 each ; much more than this is frequently yielded. The Arctic 

 and Antarctic Seas are the principal, but not the exclusive re- 

 sorts of the True Whales. See "Note" at the end of the "Cetacea." 



Balaena mysticetus. (Gr. (*vaTu%, mustax, a moustache ; xijroj, 

 a whale.) 



This is the Common Greenland Whale, sometimes called the 

 Black Whale and Right Whale. Though not the largest of the 

 tribe, it is, in a commercial point of view, most valuable for its 

 oil and other products. It is without a fin on the back. The 

 two pectoral fins are about two feet beyond the angle of the 

 mouth, about nine feet long and five broad. It is thirty feet in 

 height, and from sixty to eighty feet long ; in weight, from sixty 

 to one hundred tons, or as heavy as three hundred fat oxen. The 

 enormously large and fat tongue is very soft and delicate, giving 

 it the appearance of white satin ; it is entirely incapable of pro- 

 trusion, being fixed from the root to the tip. The front extrem- 

 ity of both jaws is surmounted by a few scattered hairs, to which 

 the name Mysticetus has reference. The back, most of the up- 

 per jaw and part of the lower jaw, together with the fins, are 

 black; the other parts gray and white, with a tinge of yellow. 

 The older the animals the more they contain of white and gray, 

 and some are all over piebald. When of the largest size they 

 yield a ton of baleen. The blubber resembles the substance of 

 salmon ; in the younger whales is yellowish white, from eight to 

 twenty inches thick, and when fresh, free from all unpleasant 

 smell. A Greenland whale, sixty feet in length, will frequently 

 yield more than twenty tuns of pure oil. 



The flesh of a young Mysticetus is of a red color, and if 

 cleared of fat, broiled and seasoned with pepper and salt, is said to 

 have a relish not unlike that of coarse beef. That of the old 

 whale becomes blackish and is exceedingly coarse. The tail is 

 very fibrous and sinewy, and extensively used in the manufac- 

 ture of glue. The bones are quite porous and contain large 

 quantities of fine oil, and the jaw bones, from twenty to twenty- 

 five feet in length, are often preserved, chiefly on account of the 



