THE GREENLAND. OS EIGHT WHALE. 



263 



Others have either a hump-like protuberance or dorsal fin or a series of longitudinal skin-plaits on the 

 throat the Balaenopteridse, or Humpbacks, and Rorquals. 



THE GREENLAND, OB RIGHT WHALE.* Among the Cetacea this, par excellence, may be 

 denominated the Whale, for much of the popular knowledge, interest, and commercial value of the 

 group has centred in this animal. It is the well-known form followed by the Greenland whalers into 

 the Arctic seas. The stories of its hunting and 

 authenticated accounts of its vast size, &c., associate 

 it in many minds as the most typical of the Whale 

 tribe. But the truth is, it is unusual in many re- 

 spects, and not even quite representative of the 

 group of Whalebone Whales as a whole. More- 

 over, it is as well at first to take notice of the fact 

 that of the genus Balcena, that to which the term 

 Greenland or Right Whale is applicable is not 

 the only species. For a long time it was believed 

 that this Whale inhabited a very large area of the 

 oceans. Later data, however, go to show that at 

 least five species have existed or still exist, each 

 restricted within a moderately defined area. B. 

 mysticetus reaches from the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 up Baffin's Bay and Smith's Sound, and westwards 

 by Barrow Strait, &c., to the extremity of the 

 North American continent, and descends to 

 Behring Strait, Kamstchatka, and the Sea of 

 Okhotsk. It moreover passes along the Arctic 

 Ocean from Behring Strait to Spitzbergen and 

 the east of Greenland, that is, it has a circum-polar 

 area, in the two points already named descending 

 to lower latitudes. 



THE BISCAY WHALE (B. biscayensis) differs 

 in a proportionally smaller head ; shorter, thicker, 

 and more brittle baleen ; smoother, thicker skin ; 

 and slightly bluish shade of colour. From the VIEWS TO ILLUSTRATE POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF BALEEN. 

 eighth to the tenth century the Basque people KKS.^t^.^^^i^^ 



pstablishpfl fl WTialp fiqhprv vio-lit in flip rm'rlrllp of t>one, m being maxillar.v bone of palate, j lower jaw-bones; B arch of 

 >ldUllbIieU A VV llclie nblieiy llgllG 111 me miUUie >I baleen plates, as seen in cross section of mouth; c, vertical section 

 .-. , ,1 .. -, ,1 . ,, .-, i through gum, palatal, or intermediate substance (is) with (!>} three baleen 



me Atlantic, and even tO the beginning Of the last plates springing therefrom ; i>, whalebone in cross section under the 



microscope and showing hair-like structure. 



century it was known that the same kind of 



animal was pursued across the Atlantic as far as Florida, and beyond Great Britain towards 

 Iceland. But these hardy seamen followed the Whale with such vigour as to diminish, and, as was 

 believed, drive it within the Arctic circle, an assumption which has disappeared before the knowledge 

 that it differs from the so-called Greenland Whale. Almost between the same parallels in the 

 Pacific Ocean from the American to the Asiatic shores is another the JAPAN WHALE (B. japonica) 

 pursued by English, American, and Japanese whalers. This black animal, with a white eye-spot and 

 paler on the chin and belly, has slenderer but equally long baleen, and in certain osteological features 

 is regarded as specifically distinct. Another Whale, the CAPE WHALE (B. australis\ ranges from 

 the Cape region across the South Atlantic to the coast of South America below Brazil. While a 

 fifth, the SOUTH PACIFIC WHALE (B. antipodarum), occupies a strip from the South American coast 

 to New Zealand and Australia. The two latter have points in common with the others, and are 

 only distinguished as separate species by supposed structural variations. 



The habits of all these animals are exceedingly alike, and only in the first two is there 

 very decided distinction in appearance. Such being the case, we may refer in detail to the Greenland 

 Whale, Bowhead, or great Polar Whale of the Americans. This creature ordinarily attains a 



* Balcena mysticetus. 



