230 WHALES. 



about a thousand pounds, a value far exceeding that 

 of the carcass of any other animal. 



As is the case with the ox and the sheep, there are 

 few parts of the whale that are not useful, in some way 

 or other. The oil and the whale-hone are well known. 

 The tendons may be split down, and used as a thread ; 

 the membranous coats of the intestines make no bad 

 substitute for window-glass ; the fibrous fringes of the 

 whale-bone make ropes and fishing-nets ; the jaws and 

 ribs serve as beams and rafters for the habitations of 

 those northern people whose countries produce no tim- 

 ber ; and the flesh is eaten by the same people with 

 avidity, the heart and the tongue being accounted 

 choice dainties. The muscle of the young ones is far 

 from unpalatable, and both looks and tastes something 

 like veal. 



Though the whale has been often regarded as the 

 emblem of longevity, and the period of its natural life 

 set down at a thousand years, there is no information 

 upon the point, further than that to acquire so vast a 

 size it must live a long time. Neither is it known 

 whether, independently of the ravages of man, the race 

 be diminishing. Analogy would lead one to think so, 

 because the native races of large land animals are de- 

 creasing in the northern hemisphere, and some of them 

 extinct ; but the case is one in which no dependence 

 can be placed upon analogies. 



The NORDCAPER is a smaller variety of the common 

 whale, the head and under-part of the body are white, 

 and the upper part, grey. It tapers more to the tail 

 than the common whale, and is more active in its 



