xiv WHALEBONE 193 



belong to the group called " whalebone whales," because they 

 are provided with a remarkable apparatus in the mouth for 

 the purpose of obtaining their food, to which the rather 

 misleading name of " whalebone " has been given, a name for 

 which naturalists have substituted " baleen " ; but the former 

 is so completely engrafted into our language, especially in all 

 commercial transactions connected with the subject, that it 

 will probably last as long as the material itself, although 

 it is now well known that it has nothing to do with " bone " 

 in the ordinary acceptation of the word. What whalebone 

 actually is was apparently a mystery to our forefathers. 

 Belon in 1551 hazarded the conjecture that it was the eye- 

 brows of the whale ; but others thought that it was the 

 apparatus by which it steered itself through the water. This 

 notion is probably connected with the old feudal law cited 

 by Blackstone (vol. i. p. 233), that the tails of all whales 

 belonged to the Queen as a perquisite to furnish her Majesty's 

 wardrobe with whalebone. The whalebone whales have no 

 teeth in either jaw (except some of a most rudimentary 

 nature, which disappear even before birth), but in the place 

 teeth usually occupy in the upper jaw, or rather upon each 

 side of the palate, the whalebone grows. This consists of 

 flattened horny plates, several hundred in number on each 

 side, separated by a narrow bare interval along the middle 

 line. The chemical composition and general character of 

 these plates resemble^ those of hair, horn, or hoof. In minute 

 structure they more nearly resemble the horn of the rhino- 

 ceros than any other similar growth. They are placed trans- 

 versely to the long axis of the palate, with very short spaces 

 between them. Each plate or blade is somewhat triangular 

 in form, with the base attached to the palate and the apex 

 hanging downwards. The outer edge of the blade is hard and 

 smooth, but the inner edge and apex fray out into long bristly 

 fibres, so that the roof of the whale's mouth looks as if 

 covered with hair, as described by Aristotle. As the bony 

 palate is more or less arched from before backwards, the 

 blades are longest near the middle of the series, and gradually 

 diminish towards the front and back of the mouth. 



The use of the whalebone to the whale is to strain the 







