90 VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN. 



fiers of animals, because the cetaceous fish breathe 

 by lungs, and not gills, and because they suckle 

 their young, have, by a learned and laughable ab- 

 surdity, ranked them among quadrupeds. It is 

 needless, however, to say, that they want the distin- 

 guishing and decisive characteristics of quadrupeds;: 

 and hence, though they may correspond with them 

 in some respects, they should assuredly be held to 

 be of a different race. 



The common whale, called by Linnaeus Balaz- 

 na mysticetuS) has, it is affirmed, been sometimes 

 found 160 feet long. In the seas of Spitzbergen 

 and Greenland, however, whales now seldom 

 reach 70 feet, being generally killed before they 

 arrive at full growth. Head of a- triangular 

 shape, and nearly one-third of the size of the fish ; 

 under-lip much broader than the upper. Have 

 no teeth, but merely laminae in the upper jaw, 

 similar to those found in the bill of a duck, but 

 more closely set together, and of a black colour. 

 Tongue, in ordinary sized whales, about IS or 20 

 feet long ; consists of a soft spongy fat, and fre- 

 quently yields five or six barrels of oil. That 

 article in commerce, commonly known by the 

 name of zvhalebone, is found adhering to the up- 

 per jaw, in thin parallel laminas, usually measur- 

 ing from 3 to 10 or 12 feet in length ; of these 



