198 WHALES AND WHALE FISHERIES xiv 



or humpback whale, distinguished from the right whale by 

 having a bunch standing in the place where the fin does in 

 the finback. This bunch is as big as a man's head, and a foot 

 high, shaped like a plug pointing backwards." A better 

 distinction from all other whalebone whales is the immense 

 length of the pectoral fins or flippers, which are indented or 



FIG. 11. 



scalloped along their margins. The usual length of the adult 

 ranges from 45 to 50 feet. The baleen plates are short and 

 broad, and of a deep black colour. This whale has a very 

 wide range, being found, with no important differences, in both 

 the North and South Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and from 

 Greenland to South Georgia. When caught it yields a fair 

 supply of oil, but much less than the right whales, and its 

 whalebone is of very inferior quality. 



FIG. 12. 



(2) The rorquals, or Rimers (Balcenoptera) (Fig. 12). These 

 have the plicated skin of the throat like that of the humpback, 

 the furrows being more numerous and close set, but the 

 pectoral fins are comparatively small, and the dorsal fin 

 distinct, compressed, and triangular. The head is com- 

 paratively small and flat, and pointed in front, the whalebone 

 short and coarse, the body long and slender, and the tail very 

 much compressed before it expands into the " flukes." The 

 rorquals are perhaps the most abundant and widely distributed 



