THE GREENLAND WHALE. 



Bonnaterre; Lacepede. 



PLATE XI. THE WHALE. 



THE Greenland Whale is an object of much importance 

 in commerce to the Polar Seas ; it is productive of more oil 

 than any other of the Cctacea, and being less active, slower 

 in its motions, and more timid than any other of similar 

 magnitude, hence it is more easily captured. 



In former times there was much exaggeration as to the 

 size of this whale, eighty and one hundred feet being 

 assigned as a frequent size, and one hundred and fifty and 

 two hundred feet as not uncommon. Some of the ancient 

 naturalists stated that it attained even a much greater 

 length. From, the researches, however, of Scorseby, it 

 seems irrefragably established that the mysticetus at no 

 time ever exceeds sixty-five or seventy feet. He himself 

 was personally concerned in the capture of three hundred 

 and twenty-two, not one of which exceeded sixty feet. He 

 adds, that an uncommon whale which was caught near 

 Spitzbergen, the whalebone of which measured almost fif- 

 teen feet, was not so much as seventy feet in length ; and 

 the largest actual measurement he has met with is that 

 given by the late Sir Charles Giesecki, who states that in 

 1813 a whale was killed at Godhaven of the length of sixty- 

 seven feet. Its greatest circumference is from thirty to 

 forty feet. 



When, full grown, therefore, the length may be stated as 

 varying from fifty to sixty-five, or very rarely seventy feet. 

 It is thickest a little behind the fins, near the middle of its 

 whole length, whence it gradually tapers in a conical form 



