HISTORY OF THE WHALE. 83 



and a third being the intermediate substance. These ap- 

 pear to have three stages of duration; for that which forms 

 on the cone, I believe makes the hair, and that on the outside 

 makes principally the plate of the whalebone ; this, when 

 a certain length, breaks off, leaving the hair projecting, be- 

 coming at the termination very brittle ; and the third or 

 intermediate substance, by the time it rises as high as the 

 edge of the jaw, decays and spftens away like the old cuti- 

 cle of the sole of the foot." 



The tongue is incapable of protrusion, being fixed from 

 the root to the tip ; a slight beard, consisting of a few short 

 scattered hairs, surmount the anterior extremity of both 

 jaws. The throat is remarkably straight; Sir Charles 

 Giesecki states it does not exceed an inch and a half in 

 width. 



The color of the mysticetus is velvet-black, grey, and 

 white, with a tinge of yellow. The back, most of the up- 

 per jaw, and part of the lower, together with the fin-s and 

 tail, are black. The lips, the fore part of the lower' jaw, 

 sometimes a little of the upper, and a portion of the 

 abdomen are white ; and the eyelids, the junction of the 

 tail with the body, a portion of the axila of the fins, &c. 

 are grey. The older the animal, the more they contain 

 of white and grey, and some are all over pie-bald. 

 The surface of the body is somewhat furrowed ; the 

 jarf-skin is not thicker than parchment ; the rete- 

 mcosum in adults is about three-fourths of an inch in thick- 

 less, over most parts of the body ; in suckers nearly two 

 iches : it is generally of the same color throughout its 

 lickness. The oliaginous substance called blubber, and 

 constituting the most valuable part of the animal, forms a 

 complete wrapper round the whole body from eight to 

 twenty inches thick. In some old animals it resembles the 

 substance of salmon, whilst in the younger it is yellowish 

 white. The lower jaw, excepting the two bones, consists 



