ON THE GREENLAND RIGHT- WHALE. 29 



even in speaking of such peculiar creatures as the Narwhal and the Bottle-head {Hyperoodon), 

 the former of which was unknown to zoologists in the seventeenth century, and the latter until 

 the end of the eighteenth century ; the same is also the case with the Pike-whale {Balænoptera 

 rostrata, Fall.), the Ca'ing-whale {Glohioceplialus nielas, Tr.), and several other dolphins which onlv 

 in our days have been admitted into the zoological system. 



In the ' Mirror' one of the Cetaceans is described in the following manner ■} 



" En Art af Hvale er endnu den, som hedder Nordlival, og er den Pisk stor ; den er 80 Alne 

 lang eller 90, de som blive de storste, og ligesaa tyk, som den er lang ; thi et Reeb, som trækkes 

 lige langt med den, naaer netop omkring den, hvor den er tykkest ; den haver og saa stort et 

 Hoved, at det udgjor næsten den tredie Deel af ham. Ellers lever denne Fisk reenlig, thi man 

 siger om den, at den nyder ingen anden Fode, end Taage og Regn og det som falder af Luften 

 ned paa Soen, og skjont den bliver fanget, og dens Lidvolde aabnes, da findes intet Ureent i 

 dens Mave, som i andre Fiskes, der nyde Fode, thi dens Mave er reen og tom. Sin Mund kan 

 den ikke vel aabne ; thi de Barder, der sidde i dens Mund, reise sig tvert for Munden, naar den 

 lukker den hoit op, saa at den ofte faaer sin Dod deraf, at den ikke kan lukke sin Mund igjen. 

 Den er ellers ikke grum mod Skibe, haver ingen Tænder, og er en feed Fisk, og meget vel spiselig 

 .for Mennesker." 



(Another species of whales is the one called North Whale, and that is a large fish ; it is eighty 

 ells long, or ninety, those which grow biggest, and as thick as it is long ; for a rope drawn to its 

 full length can only just encompass its body where it is thickest ; it has also so large a head that 

 it makes almost the third part of him. Otherwise this fish is very cleanly in its manner of living, 

 for it is said not to take any other food than the fog and the rain, and what falls from the air 

 on the surface of the sea ; and though it is caught and its bowels are opened, yet nothing unclean 

 can be found in its stomach as in those of other fishes that take food, for its stomach is clean and 

 empty. Its mouth it cannot well open, for the whalebones sitting in its mouth are raised across 

 the mouth when it is wide open, so that it often dies because it cannot shut its mouth again. 

 Otherwise it is not fierce against vessels, has no teeth, and is a fat fish that may very well be eaten 

 by mankind.) 



At the time when the ' Mirror' was written, and even a long time afterwards, this description 

 could only be read by the learned with many doubts of its veracity ; for not a word was to be 

 found in Aristotle or Pliny about an animal eighty or ninety ells long, and as big in circum- 

 ference as it was long, whose head made a third of its whole length, that only subsisted on fog and 

 rain, and by its long whalebone was prevented from opening its mouth wide ; and such a description 

 would really seem to be quite fabulous to any one that, as yet, had no idea of a North or Greenland 

 whale. This animal, however, is, after all, according to the pictures of it given by Martens and 

 Zorgdrager, in direct diameter a third of its length, which would thus exactly equal the circum- 

 ference, and it is by no means certain that the proportion is incorrectly shown in these 

 pictures." The head is really, as we now know, a third part of the whole length of 

 the animal, nay, in the males even somewhat larger. It is true that the Greenland whale does not 

 subsist on fog and rain ; but this statement may be considered as nothing more than a not very 



^ Einersen's Translation, p. 134. 



^ We must confess that, as to this proportion, we confide more in these drawings, rude as they 

 are, than in Scoresby's, which certainly represents the Greenland whale as more slender than it really is. 



