WHALE FISHERY. .13 



middle of the series or row, on each side of the mouth ; the greatest 

 length varies from ten to fifteen feet, and the breadth of the gum is 

 usually in a full grown fish from ten to twelve inches. There are 

 upwards of three hundred blades in each series or side of bone, as the 

 whale fishers term it. The use of this part of its structure to the animal 

 is to serve as a net or sieve, in which to collect its food. As it proceeds 

 with distended jaws through the ocean, the water rushes through this 

 sieve; but even the minutest living creatures are detained by it, 

 and are made, in so many successive accumulations, to form mouthful 

 after mouthful to this mighty destroyer. The eyes of the whale are 

 placed immediately above the corners of the mouth ; they are singularly 

 disproportionate to the size of the animal, being scarcely larger than those 

 of an ox. No trace of an ear is to be discerned till after the removal of 

 the skin, and the hearing of the whale is accordingly very imperfect. 

 On the most elevated part of the head are the nostrils or blow-holes, 

 being two longitudinal apertures of six or eight inches in length ; 

 through these, when the creature breathes, a jet of moist vapour is snorted 

 forth to the height of eighteen or twenty feet, and with a noise which 

 may be sometimes heard at the distance of several miles. 



The open mouth of a whale is a capacious cavern, capable of containing 

 a ship's jolly boat full of men. Captain Scoresby describes its dimen- 

 sions as being commonly six or eight feet wide, ten or twelve feet high 

 in front, and fifteen or sixteen feet long ; the throat, however, is very 

 narrow. 



The part of the whale which gives the chief value to the fish, is what 

 is called its blubber, being that substance from which train oil is 

 obtained; this substance, which is really the fat of the animal, lies 

 immediately under the skin, encompassing the whole body, fins and tail. 

 " His color," says the author, from which we have quoted largely, "is 

 yellowish- white, yellow or red. In the very young animal it is always 

 yellowish-white. In some old animals it resembles the color of the 

 salmon; it swims in water; its thickness all round the body is eight or 

 ten or twenty inches, varying in different parts as in different individuals; 

 the lips are composed almost entirely of blubber, and yield from one to 

 two tons of oil each ; the tongue is chiefly composed of a soft kind of 

 fat, that affords less oil than any other blubber. * * * The blubber 

 in its fresh state is without any unpleasant smell, and it is not until after 

 the termination of the voyage, when the cargo is unstowed, that a Green- 

 land ship becomes disagreeable." 



The only operation performed upon the whale in its native region 



