536 MR. R. BROWN ON THE CETACEANS [Nov. 12, 



each side of the gum, is a continuous curve, broadest anteriorly, pale 

 blue, sides pale blue and carnation mixed. The upper lip is very 

 much smaller than the under. The lips are furrowed immediately 

 beliind the edge and bevelled, and are all deep black and speckled. 

 No traces exist of either eyebrows or eyelashes. The eye is very small 

 and hollow, measuring from canthus to canthus 3| inches (in adult), 

 and 1 1 inch deep, with a deep furrow superiorly and inferiorly imme- 

 diately above and below the eye. The inside of the eyelid is red. 

 The aperture of the auricular canal is difficult to find, and is not 

 larger than the diameter of a goose-quill. The laminse or " splits " 

 of whalebone are longest in the middle, but grow much shorter 

 posteriorly to this " size-split." The number of laminae is about 

 360 on each side. The whalers have a notion that there is a lamina 

 for each day in the year; but this, like the idea that Jonah's 

 face can be seen on the nose of the Whale, is, I am afraid, a rather 

 hasty generalization. Each lamina ends in a tuft of hair, this tuft 

 being continuous with the hair on the inside of the bone, this "hair " 

 again being composed of identically the same substance as the whale- 

 bone itself. The outside of the bone is smooth, pale blue-coloured, 

 with the edges overlapping, the free edges pointing posteriorly, but 

 with an interval (varying according to the age of the animal) between 

 the laminae of so very regular a character that each lamina can be 

 seen and even counted from the outside. Where the bone is placed 

 in the gum it is of a greyish-white colour, and on exposure to air 

 becomes black ; all of the portions of the bone most exposed are of 

 a blackish colour. On the outside of the laminas, a few inches from 

 the end, is a transverse wave or ridge, continuous in a slightly ele- 

 vated ridge across the whole of the laminae ; and in old Whales there 

 are several of these wavy transverse ridges, which are apparently in 

 some way connected with its growth. The best whalebone has 

 several of these ridges. Interiorly, in front of the place where each 

 lamina is inserted into the gum, are several rows of short stumps of 

 whalebone terminated by a tuft, and before these again short white 

 hair laminae graduating into a velvet-like substance in the mouth. 

 It is said that the laminae, after once being produced, do not increase 

 in number, but that the interspaces of the laminae increase in width. 

 This interspace in adult Whales is from about half an inch to one inch 

 in width. Occasionally two splits are found growing together in the 

 gum, but separate below. The length of the whalebone depends, it is 

 said, on the size of the head, and bears no ratio to the length of the 

 body. Occasionally a long AVhale has small and short whalebone, 

 whilst a short dumpy individual (for there are individual differences 

 in these as in all other animalf=, not referable to specific difference) 

 may have much longer. The longest lamina of whalebone which I 

 have heard ofbeing obtained was 14 feet. I have personally known 

 of another 1 3 feet 3 inches long ; but the average length is 1 2 feet 

 and under. This is the middle split already spoken of, known to the 

 whalers as the " size-split ;" but in the measurement of this the tuft 

 of "hair," which sometimes reaches six or seven inches in length, is 

 not included — a very important matter, as much depends upon the 



