VERTEBRATA: MAMMALIA. 



687 



rid of the surplus water which it has taken in at the mouth and strained 

 through the baleen- plates. The modern and undoubtedly correct view, 

 however, is, that the water which has been strained through the baleen 

 really makes its escape at the sides of the mouth, and does not enter the 

 pharynx to be expelled through the nose. Upon this view the apparent 



Fig. 383. Diagram of the baleen-plates of a Whale, a a Section of the palatal surface 

 of the upper jaw, showing the strong median ridge or keel ; b b Baleen-plates sunk at 

 their bases in the palate ; ff Fibrous margin of baleen-plates. 



column of water emitted from the blow-holes in the act of blowing con- 

 sists really of the expired air from the lungs, the contained watery vapour 

 of which is suddenly condensed on its entrance into the cold atmosphere. 

 With the expired air there may be such water as may have gained access 

 to the nose through the blow-hole, for the expulsion of which proper pro- 

 vision exists in the form of muscular diverticula of the nasal cavity. It is 

 also possible that the column of air in being forcibly expelled from the 

 blow-hole may take up with it some of the superincumbent water. 



The skin in the Right Whale is perfectly smooth and naked, but it is 

 underlaid by a thick layer of subcutaneous fat, which varies from eight to 

 fifteen inches in thickness, and is known as the "blubber." The blubber 

 serves partly to give buoyancy to the body, but more especially to protect 

 the animal against the extreme cold of the medium in which it lives. It is 

 the blubber which is chiefly the object of the whale-fishery, as it yields the 

 whale-oil of commerce. 



The whale which is captured in the South Atlantic is not the same 

 species as the Greenland Whale, and is termed the Balana atistralis. It 

 is much about the size of the Right Whale, averaging about fifty feet, but 

 the head is proportionately smaller. Another Atlantic species is the B. 

 Biscayensis. In the South Pacific occurs Balcena antipodarum, and in the 



