ON THE GREENLAND RIGHT-WHALE. 43 



presented by the opening of the mouth, which does not, as in the Greenland whale, form an 

 arch evenly curved before and behind, but is, just in front of the eyes, turned very abruptly 

 downwards and outwards. This characteristic, first, if we are not mistaken, pointed out 

 by Professor H. Schlegel, is so striking, that its representation will scarcely be omitted in 

 any illustration of the exterior of these whales, however indifferently in other respects they 

 may happen to be executed ; and it is, indeed, very easily to be distinguished, even in 

 one of the well-known drawings given by Chamisso of the wooden models made by the 

 Aleutians, so that by this character alone the "kuliomoch" of these islanders may be recog- 

 nised as a species of whale belonging to this group. No less important are the distinguishing 

 marks afforded by the whalebone, and in a practical point of view they are even preferable to 

 the character already mentioned ; for while it is extremely uncommon for the zoologist to 

 obtain either a drawing of the whale, or characteristic portions of its skeleton, the whalebone, on 

 the contrary, is continually brought home, as it forms an important part of the merchandise 

 obtained by whalers. In the Greenland whale the anterior and far greater part of the plates of 

 every set of whalebone are curved in the form of a sabre ; their thickness is, comparatively speaking, 

 not considerable, scarcely exceeding ten millimeters, even in pieces of ten or eleven feet in length ; 

 but, on the other hand, the thickness is not much less at the point than at the root ; then the 

 hair-like fibres along the inner edge of the whalebone are extremely smooth and soft and flexible ; 

 the surface of the whalebone, when rubbed a little with a cloth, or even with the finger, very 

 readily assumes a fine' polish; and, finally, the horny substance itself is very tough and flexible. 

 The whalebone of the South Sea whales is, on the contrary, almost straight, and this is not only 

 the case with those of which the whalebone is shorter than that of the Greenland whale, but even 

 the north-west whalebone, as it is called, obtained from the whales caught on the fishing- grounds 

 along the north-western coast of North America, which even exceeds in length the Greenland 

 whalebone, is nearly straight. Their whalebone is, moreover, less flexible, and much more brittle 

 than that of the Greenland whale, so that sticks cut off it may easily be broken, especially'in 

 frosty weather; then, again, it is much thicker at the root (the north-west whalebone almost 

 twice as thick), but it tapers much towards the point. The fibres are much coarser and rougher,^ 



called by that name by New Zealand whalers ; the persons, however, to whom we owe the informa- 

 tion mentioned above did not speak of cubs accompanying full-grown whales, and the identity of the 

 name can scarcely settle the question, as Scrag and Scrag-whale have been common appellations 

 during at least 150 years, and, like the name of right-whale itself, have at different times ' and in 

 diiferent places been applied to cetaceans quite different from one another. 



^ In Gray's above-mentioned catalogue of the Cetaceans in the British Museum, Balæna australis 

 is indeed mentioned in the group characterised by thick whalebone and coarse whalebone hairs, but 

 in the description of its whalebone, the whalebone hairs are nevertheless stated to [be much finer than 

 in the former species, this being B. marginata, which is admitted into the same group as B. mysticetus, 

 and accordingly distinguished by thin and tough whalebone with few very slender whalebone^liairs. This 

 contradiction, however, is only caused by the description of the whalebone of the Cape whale being 

 verbally copied from a former essay, by the same author, in the Zoology of the voyage^of the Erebus 

 and Terror, in which B. australis is not mentioned (as in the catalogue), just after B. marginata, 

 but, on the contrary, immediately after B. japonica (with which it is therefore compared), and when 

 the series of the species was altered the passage referred to was not altered in accordance with 

 the new context. 



