310 WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 



the section would be like this. These hairs intertwine 

 and form a surface to the palate like a well-worn cocoanut 

 mat. The whale opens its mouth and takes in possibly a 

 ton of water thick with small shrimps, partially closes its 

 jaws and expels the water through the fibrous surface and 

 out between the blades. I suppose by raising the enormous 

 soft plum-coloured tongue (D in section) towards the hairy 

 palate or mat of interwoven hairs at the edge of each plate 

 (CC in section) it prevents the shrimps going out with the 

 water, and the tongue works the shrimps down to its throat. 

 I have not calculated the food which I have seen come out 

 of a whale's stomach when cut up, but I say, at a rough guess, 

 forty to sixty gallons three or four barrels of very minute 

 shrimps. I have only seen the remains of one of the Right 



A Right Whale's Head 



whale, Mysticetus, and those of the smaller, somewhat 

 similar whale, Balsena Australis. The Right or Greenland 

 whale had very long bone, up to eleven feet. To cover the 

 whalebone, the lower lip is formed as in this jotting. 

 Scoresby maintains that when the Right whale's mouth is 

 closed, the blades bend or fold back towards the throat. 

 This seems probable. 



You see from the difference between these whales' points 

 that the rorqual is a more athletic beast than the Right 

 whale. 



The sperm or cachalot whale's head is very peculiar. 

 It has teeth in lower jaw and a small tongue. All the part 

 forward of the dotted line here, which represents the skull 

 of the head, is a mass of fibrous oil. When you cut through 



