30 . ESCHRICPIT AND REINHARDT 



successful explanation of the fact, most accurately observed, that the stomach of the North whale 

 does not contain those remains of larger animals, more or less digested, which they found in the 

 stomachs of other Cetaceans ; and thus it shows us that they had perfectly well observed the 

 difference between the food of the right-whales and that of the other Cetaceans. And even if the 

 Greenland whale can open its mouth very wide, it scarcely ever opens it more than just to make 

 an entrance to the cavity of the mouth in front, while at the sides the exceedingly long whale- 

 bone will scarcely ever be laid bare down to the very points, but will always, even Avhen 

 the whale is gaping widest, be partially concealed by the enormous underlip. Should the 

 whalebone accidentally be laid bare, it is by no means unlikely that the animal will be exposed to 

 the danger of being unable again to bring the points of the whalebone in their proper position 

 inside the underlip, and of being in this manner deprived of the sifting instrument, without which 

 it cannot procure food. On the other hand, the old author cannot be acquitted of having 

 very much exaggerated the size of his North whale ; for by the measurements of Scoresby it must 

 be considered to be beyond doubt that the Greenland whale seldom reaches more than sixty, 

 and perhaps never more than seventy feet long ; now, it is in the highest degree improbable that 

 it formerly grew considerably larger than now, and besides, we have a statement of the old 

 whaler Mr. Edge, that sixty-five feet was in his time, also, the usual limit of the growth of the 

 whale.-' We might, indeed, be almost tempted to suppose that the author of the ' Mirror ' did 

 not even in this point deserve our blame, when we look over the lengths given by him of the 

 other whales which he mentions ; for these, too, seem to have been made twice as large as they 

 really are -^ the measures will not be tolerably correct indeed unless we put feet instead of ells ; 

 it might, thei'efore, easily be supposed that the old Icelandic "alna,'' which Einersen translates 

 " ulna " and " alen " (ell), was not more than one foot of our present measure. The learned 

 Icelander, the late member of the Society, Einn Magnussen, whom one of the authors, Eschricht, 

 once consulted on the question, has, however, stated, that the old Icelandic ell was certainly some- 

 what shorter than the present, but not so much by far.^ Thus, it seems that we are forced to 

 admit that the statement given in the ' Mirror ' of the dimensions of the North whale is greatly 

 and palpably exaggerated ; but even if this be the case, yet this ancient description is in a very 

 high degree characteristic, so that no doubt can be entertained as to which whale is meant by it. 

 It is true that the ' Mirror ' does not state anything about the particulars of its appearance near 

 the coasts of Iceland ; but in this respect its name appears to give the information required, for 

 by " North whale " the old Icelanders must have understood a whale that, more than any other, 



^ " The Whale is a Fish or Sea-beast of a huge bignesse, about sextie-fiue foot long," Purchas III, 

 p. 470. 



" Thus, we are told in the ' Mirror' that the " Hnidingerne " (the cai'ng whale) " are about ten 

 or twenty ells long;" the little " Nise " (the common porpoise) " not longer than five ells," and " the 

 Leipter," perhaps the northern Bottle-noses (ifi^eworAj/wc/røs), "not longer than seven," the "Andhval" 

 {Hyperoodon) "not longer than twentj'-five ells," the Narwhal " twenty ells;" measurements which give 

 to all the Cetaceans referred to about twice the size they really have. 



^ He says in a letter to Eschricht, that it is proved in the first part of Pål Jonsson Vidalin's explana- 

 tions of obsolete words in the Icelandic law-book (published in 1846, in Reykiavig, at the expense of the 

 Literary Society of Iceland) that the old Icelandic ell, formerly used in all Scandinavia, but now super- 

 seded by the Hamburg ell, was a seventh part shorter than the latter. 



