WHALES. 231 



motions, and more ferocious in its disposition. It is 

 found further to the south than the other, on the coasts 

 of Iceland and Norway, where it feeds upon medusce, 

 herrings, and shell-fish. 



Though both these species were formerly cast upon 

 the British shores, especially on those of Scotland ; and 

 though, if we can trust the statements of the Romans, 

 (which are any thing but precise,) the shores of Britain 

 were the regular home of great whales in their days, yet 

 they are now of rare occurrence. Not so with the 

 bal&nopterce, or whales with a fin on the back. There 

 are two species of these, and of the one there are two 

 varieties. 



One, the RAZOR-BACK, (Jbalanoptera physalis,) has 

 been cast upon the shores of Scotland, as long as eighty 

 feet, and it is met with in the Greenland seas more than 

 one hundred feet long, but not nearly so thick in pro- 

 portion as the common whale. It has a large triangular 

 fin on the back, from which it sometimes gets the name 

 of the fin-fish. It is a very active fish, swims with im- 

 mense velocity, and is seldom taken for its oil, as the 

 quantity is not great; but the northern people like it as 

 food, especially the swimming paws and the skin, which 

 is smooth and gelatinous. The plates of baleen, in the 

 razor-back, are very short, but they are fringed with 

 long hair. This animal is much more active in its 

 feeding than the common whale, and preys upon her- 

 rings, mackerel, and other small fish, which it occa- 

 sionally follows so far south as the Hebrides, but seldom 

 so far as the English coast. It blows with much more 

 force than the common whale, and sends the spout of 

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