H2 WHALE FISHERY. 



one, he believes, exceeded 60 feet in length. A few instances, he adds, 

 may have occurred, in which eight or ten feet more had been attained ; 

 but there is no evidence that the animal has ever been seen of a greater 

 length than 70 feet. There is, however, another species (called by 

 Linnaeus (Balcena physalisj, known by the name of "razor back" 

 among the whalers, which reaches a larger size, being sometimes 100 or 

 150 feet long. It is, most probably, the most bulky and powerful of 

 created beings : the name of razor back, which is given to it, is from a 

 small horny fin, or protuberance, running along the ridge of the back, 

 and is no great favourite with the whalers, being more active and 

 difficult to capture than the common, or what they call the right Jish, 

 and very far from being so valuable a prize when caught. The whale is 

 popularly considered as a fish, but, except that it lives in the water, it 

 has little or no similarity to the class of animals properly so denominated. 

 It is viviparous, i.e. brings forth its young, not enclosed in an egg, but 

 alive and full-formed, it has usually but one at a time, which it suckles with 

 milk drawn from its teats. It is considered as belonging to the class of the 

 Mammals, the same under which man is comprehended. It is also like man, 

 a warm blooded animal ; the blood, however, being of considerably higher 

 temperature than of the human species ; finally, it is provided with lungs 

 like the human species; and can only breathe by putting its head out of 

 water. The skin of the whale is dark colored, smooth, and without 

 scales. Its form in the middle is cylindrical, from which it gradually 

 tapers to the tail. This part of the animal is only five or six feet long, 

 but its width or extent from right to left, its position being horizontal or 

 flat upon the water, is sometimes twenty-five feet long ; the power of this 

 bony fan is prodigious. It is the instrument by which the animal 

 principally makes its way through the water, and is also its most 

 effective weapon of defence. Towards the head it likewise possesses two 

 fins or swimming paws, as they have been termed, attached to the under 

 part of the belly ; but the chief use of these seems to be to balance it or keep 

 it steady as it moves along. About a third part of its whole length is 

 occupied by its enormous head, which is cleft in two by a mouth, the 

 opening of which extends to the neck ; the head of the whale is the most 

 peculiar and remarkable part of its structure ; this species has no teeth, 

 but in their room two fringes, as they may be called, consisting of a 

 series of blades of an elastic substance, covered on the interior edges 

 with hair attached to the upper gum ; this is the substance known by the 

 name of whalebone. The blades are broadest at the upper extremity, 

 where they are inserted in the gum, and are of the greatest length in th 



