108 



BAL^NIDjE.- 



-MAMMALIA. 



-BaL^NIDjE. 



Family I.— BAL^NID^. 



This family consists of the true whales, which are 

 distinguislied from the cachalots, the dolphins, and the 

 herbivorous cetacea, by the possession of plates of 

 whalebone, or more properly baleen, depending from 

 the palatal region of the upper jaw. They have no true 

 teeth, although, as we have seen, there are tooth-sacs 

 developed in the lower jaw of the embryonic mysticete. 

 The true whales are further recognized by their prepos- 

 terously large heads, which in some of the species 

 extend to one-third of the entire length of tlie body. 

 The nostrils are distinct and longitudinally disposed on 

 the crown of the head. The mammary glands are 

 placed in the inguinal region — an arrangement which 

 also obtains in the cachalots and dolphins. The 

 intestine is furnished with a coecum. 



The Mysticete (Dalana mysticetus), or common 

 Whalebone whale — Plate 28, fig. 89 — is also known as 

 the Greenland wliale, and in Dr. Gray's catalogue of 

 the Cetacea preserved in the British Museum it is called 

 the Right whale — this term being also applied to the 

 Cape whale {Balcena australis) by the South Sea 

 whalers. Our best accounts of the Greenland whale are 

 all more or less derived from the Rev. Dr. Scoresby's 

 " Journal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale-fishery," 

 and from a paper in the first volume of the Wemerian 

 Society's Transactions, from which the following de- 

 scription is abridged. When full gi'own this species is 

 from fifty to sixty-five feet in length, and from thirty to 

 forty in circumference, immediately before the fins. It 

 is thickest a httle behind the fins, and from thence gra- 

 dually tapers towards the taO, and slightly towards the 

 neck. It is cylindrical from the nock, until near 

 about the jimotion of the tail and the body, where it 

 becomes ridged. The head has a triangular shape. 

 The bones of the head are very porous, and fuU of a 

 fine kind of oU. When the oil is drained out, the bone 

 is so light as to swim in water. The jaw-bones are 

 from twenty to twenty-five feet in length, and the space 

 between tliem is about ten feet from side to side. The 

 tongue is of great size, and yields upwards of a ton 

 of oil ; and the lips, which are placed at right angles to 

 the flat part of the base of the head, yield fully double 

 that amount. The palatal lamina of baleen are not 

 of equal length ; neither are the largest exactly in 

 the middle of the series, but somewhat nearer the 

 throat ; from this point they become gradually shorter 

 each way. On each side of the mouth are about two 

 hundred laminae of whalebone. They are not perfectly 

 flat; for, besides the longitudinal curvature, they are 

 curved transversely. The largest laminse are from ten 

 to fourteen feet in length, very rarely flfteen feet. The 

 breadth of the largest at the thick ends, or where they 

 are attached to the jaw, is about a foot. Tlie Green- 

 land fishers estimate the size of the whale by the length 

 of the whalebone ; and when the baleen is six feet 

 long, then the whale is said to be a size fish. In 

 suckers, or young whales stiU under the protection of 

 the mother, the whalebone is only a few inches long. 

 It is immediately covered by the under lips, the edge 

 of which, when the mouth is shut, overlap the upper 



part. The colour of the hide is black, grey, and white, 

 with a tinge of yellow about the lower part of the head. 

 The back, upper region of the head, most of the befly, 

 the fins, tail, and part of the under jaw, are deep velvet- 

 black. The anterior aspect of the lower jaw, and a 

 portion of the abdomen are white ; the narrow portion 

 near the junction of the tail being greyish. The skin 

 of suckers has a pale bluish tint. The cuticle or scarf- 

 skin is only as thick as ordinary parchment, whilst the 

 true skin is from three-fourths to an inch in thickness 

 all over the body. The Greenland whale is not pro- 

 vided with a dorsal fin. The flippers, which are situated 

 about two feet behind the angle of the jaws, measure 

 nine feet in length, and rather more than half the same 

 amount in breadth. The tail is compressed, semilunate, 

 notched at the centre, and sometimes as much as 

 twenty feet in breadth. 



Notwithstanding the many exaggerated statements to 

 the contrary, the Greenland whale seldom or ever exceeds 

 fifty-eight or sixty feet in length. It is a slow swimmer, 

 going at the rate of four miles an hour, though when har- 

 pooned, it is said to dive perpendicularly downwards at a 

 speed of seven knots an hour. It occasionally ascends 

 with sufiicient force to throw itself entirely out of the 

 water. It seldom remains submerged longer than 

 twenty or thirty minutes, and when it rises again to the 

 surface, it wiU remain there about the same time if not 

 di-sturbed. In calm weather it is wont to sleep in this 

 situation. One of the most moving and painful sights 

 which can be imagined, is witnessed when the whale- 

 fisher strikes a sucker, in order to secure its dam ; 

 whilst to say nothing of the unnecessary cruelty, it is 

 more than probable that this inhuman practice entails 

 serious injury to the fishery business, by greatly dimin- 

 ishing the chances of future success. According to the 

 testimony of Scoresby, " the young is frequently struck 

 for the sake of its mother, which will soon come up close 

 by it, encourage it to swim oft", assist it by takuig it imder 

 its fin, and seldom deserts it wlule hfe remains. It is 

 then very dangerous to approach, as she loses all 

 regard for her own safety in anxiety for the preserva- 

 tion of her cub, dashing about most violently, and not 

 dreading to rise even amidst the boats. Except, 

 however, when the whale has young to protect, the 

 male is m general more active and dangerous than 

 the female." The period of gestation is believed to 

 extend over a space of about ten months. In addition 

 to its powerful and relentless human adversary, the 

 Mysticete has to contend with other enemies, such as 

 the shark, the thrasher, and the sword-fish. It is itself, 

 however, a great destroyer of life ; its principal food 

 consisting of shoals of a small pteropodous moUusc, spe- 

 cifically known as the Clio borcalis. Although the 

 aperture of the throat is scarcely sufficient to admit the 

 introduction of an ordinary hen's egg, yet to satisfy so 

 prodigious a bulk of body, it is evident that myriads of 

 these little creatures must go to form a single meal — 

 and if so, what must be the annual consumption of this 

 huge monster of the deep? Well may Mr. Darwin 

 argue that for every animal which passes through a full 

 cycle of its life, ten thousand perish ere they have 

 reached maturity! Into details respecting the perils 

 encountered by those embarked in the whale fishery. 



