260 CRTJISE OF THE NEPTUNE 



Female whales are larger and fatter than the males, so that 

 a female will have an average of about ten more tons of blubber 

 than an ordinary male. As will be seen from the above measure- 

 ments, the head equals about a third of the length of the body, 

 and the upper jaw, which carries the baleen or whalebone, is 

 only a few feet shorter. The baleen is in the form of thin slabs 

 or ' splits ' set close together in the gum at right-angles to the 

 length of the jaw-bone. At the base the splits are from six to 

 twelve inches wide and from a quarter to nearly an inch in 

 thickness. They taper slowly to their free end, and terminate 

 in long hairs which extend upwards of six inches beyond the 

 solid bone. Similar hairs are found along the inside of the 

 bone. There are about 360 of these splits on each side of the 

 jaw, and they are placed so as to slope backwards. The longest 

 or ' size split ' is in the middle of the side of the jaw, and the 

 others decrease in length in front and behind. It derives its 

 name from being the split by which the length and weight of 

 the bone is computed. The longest split recorded measured 

 fourteen feet in length, but the ordinary length in adult whales 

 is from nine to ten feet. Bone of that length will average nearly 

 a ton weight to a whale. Bone six feet and under brings only 

 half the price of longer bone. The laminae are usually pale- 

 blue ; in the young they are sometimes green and black ; in older 

 whales nearly black, and occasionally striped white and black. 



This bone in the whale's mouth acts as a swab or sieve to 

 entangle and collect the small animals upon which it feeds. The 

 lower lip is very deep, and when closed fits close to the head, the 

 edge forming a bow as it curves backwards from the front. 

 When feeding, this lip is let down, so that it projects nearly at 

 right-angles, forming a sort of trough and conducting the water, 

 as the whale moves through it, 'to the tangle of hairs of the 

 exposed bone. When sufficient food has been collected the lip 

 is closed and the food removed from the baleen by the broad 



