18G8.] OF THE GREENLAND SEAS. 53-5 



rupted jargon of Scotch, English, Danish, and Eskimo, joined with 

 some words which seem to belong to no language at all, but to have 

 originated iu a misconception on either side, and to have retained 

 their place under the notion that each party was speaking the other's 

 language, something of the nature of the Liiujna Franca of the Me- 

 diterranean, the Pigeon English of China, and the Chinook jargon 

 of North-west America. 



{ft) Descriptive Remarks. — The lower surface of the head is of a 

 cream-colour, with about half a foot of blackish or ash- colour at the 

 tip (or what corresponds in tlie higher orders of mammals to the 

 symphysis) of the lower jaw ; further back the colour shades into 

 the general dark blue colour of the body. This colour is generally 

 almost black in adults, but in young ones (or "suckers") it is 

 lightish blue ; hence the whalers sometimes call these " blueskins." 

 The whiskers consist of nine or ten short rows of bristles, the longest 

 bristles anteriorly. There are also a few bristles on the apices of 

 both jaws, and a few hairs stretching all along the side of the head for 

 a few feet backwards. On the tip of the nose are two or three rows 

 of very short white hairs, with fewer hairs in the anterior rows, more 

 in the posterior. I have reason to believe that some of these hairs 

 are deciduous, as I have often found them wanting in old individuals. 

 In older Whales the darker colour of the body impinges on the under 

 surface of the head, leaving the ordinary white of the suckers merely 

 in the form of several irregular blotches, but with two (regular?) 

 spots, one on each side of the jaw immediately posterior to the eye, 

 composed of a hard cartilaginous material. There is also a little 

 white on the eyelids, and some irregular white markings on the root 

 of the tail. There is likewise a white colour all around the vulva 

 and mammae. Some individuals may be found quite white on the 

 belly, others piebald, and others with white spots on various por- 

 tions of the body not mentioned. The presence or absence of a par- 

 ticular white marking on a specimen of a Cetacean under examina- 

 tion ought by no means to be received (as has been done) as a proof 

 that the species is different, or that because such is mentioned in a 

 former description such description is erroneous, because this is 

 one of the most varying characters possessed by the order*. The 

 inside of the mouth iuferiorly, where the tongue is not attached, is of 

 a pale blue colour. The tongue is broader posteriorly, and narrowed 

 anteriorly, paler blue than the rest of the mouth, and pale blue all 

 round the edges and where not carnation, which colour prevails in 

 the form of a streak down the mouth of a deep sulcus on the middle 

 and anterior portion of the tongue, terminating irregularly about 

 two feet from the root of the tongue. The contour of the tongue is 

 entire throughout. The substance of the tongue is a fibrous blubber 

 containing very little oil. There are numerous small linear muscles 

 interspersed through the lower part. The roof of the mouth, on 



* The colour also varies with the age, the back of some being black, of others 

 black and white, and some are all white. Some old Whales are said to have a 

 broad wliite stripe over their back down to the belly (Laing's ' Voyage to Spitz- 

 bergen,' p. 126: 1815). I cannot confirm this from my own observation. 



