133 



over a monster feather bed. The lower portions of the baleen are 

 received within and protected by the lips of the mandible. The baleen 

 itself originates from a thin, fleshy substance, resting upon the gum, and 

 which affords a continuous supply of material requisite for its wonder- 

 ful after-growth. In this species the whalebone reaches to from 9 to 

 12 feet in length. It is externally of a grey or greenish colour, while 

 the fine fibrous filaments proceeding from its inner edge are black. 

 These latter form a thick internal covering, which, acting as a screening 

 apparatus, permits no particle to escape, but entangles and sifts the 

 minute objects destined to be the support of this huge cetacean. 



" The colour of the Greenland Whale is dark grey and white, with a 

 tinge of yellow on the lower part of the head ; the back, upper part of 

 the head, most of the belly, the fins, tail, and under part of the jaws, 

 are deep black ; the fore part of the under jaw and a little of the belly 

 are white, and the junction of the tail with the body, grey. They are 

 sometimes piebald. Under-sized whales are almost entirely pale- 

 bluish, and the suckers are of a pale blackish colour. The blubber is 

 from 10 to 20 inches thick. The pectoral fins are from 4 to 5 feet 

 broad, and 8 to 10 feet long. Tail, 20 to 30 feet wide." Scoresby. 



Inhab. the North Sea, between 65 and 78 latitude. 



Incapable, from its toothless mouth and narrow throat, either of 

 seizing a large prey, or of swallowing it, even when accidentally 

 entrapped, the Eight Whale is forced to live upon a group of very 

 smaD, but, fortunately for itself, extremely abundant animals, whose 

 entire lives are passed in the open seas, unsheltered save by the floating 

 gulf-weed, and unprotected from the storm but by declining into the 

 still waters of the deep. 



These tiny creatures, a heterogeneous assemblage, mostly composed 

 of peculiar shrimps, crabs, star-fish, and innumerable sea-snails, at the 

 utmost of two or three inches in length, are but insignificant pigmies 

 when compared with the bulk of the whale ; but they, small as they 

 are, assume gigantic proportions as they feast upon those countless 

 millions of microscopic beings, either individually invisible, or but imper- 

 fectly defined to our unaided eyes, which cover in the aggregate some 

 20,000 square miles of the surface of the open ocean, floating either in 

 compact masses, or in those lengthened bands produced by oceanic 

 currents, and forming the vast fields known from their colour to seamen 

 as the green waters of the Arctic Seas. 



In feeding, the lower jaw is let down and the rate of speed increased; 

 the huge cavity thus urged along secures, like a fisherman's net, a rich 

 harvest of insect game. This operation being often repeated, the com- 

 bined proceeds of the several hauls serve at length to satisfy the 

 capacious maw of the monster. 



" The natural affection of this species is interesting. The cub, being 

 insensible to danger, is easily harpooned, when the attachment of the 



