282 ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY 



nish as much as 2000 pounds of baleen together with a hundred barrels 

 of oil, to say nothing of the guano and other products, the value of such 

 a catch is considerable. The record amount of baleen in one animal, 

 according to Stevenson (185), is 3100 pounds. 



The slabs of baleen may be 10 to 12 feet long, about a foot of 

 the base being imbedded in the jaws. 



PIG. 187. Photograph of the head of a sulphur-bottom whale, Balaenoptera 

 musculus. Baleen station, Newfoundland. (From True, The Whalebone Whales of 

 the Western North Atlantic.) 



The lower edges of the slabs are frayed out into a kind of coarse, 

 hair-like structure that is clipped off and used in making brushes, etc. 



When the. whale is killed the jaws with the attached baleen are 

 hauled upon the deck of the ship, Fig. 188, where the whalebone is re- 

 moved, cut into slabs and thoroughly washed and cleaned of any flesh or 

 foreign substances. On the voyage back to port these slabs are further 

 split up, cleaned and tied into bundles of a size convenient for handling, 



