ON THE GREENLAND RIGHT-WHALE. Gl 



of its length, although only slightly, -when compared with that of older individuals. Along its 

 anterior half a narrow but thick upper lip extended, broadest before, but getting narrower 

 though thicker behind, and at last disappearing at a distance of one foot and two thirds from the 

 point of the snout. 



The outline of the lower lip, as seen from the side is sigmoid, so that the angle of the mouth 

 is situated a little lower than the symphysis of the under jaw. The angle of the mouth is just 

 beneath the eye, but its fissure may be traced on the surface of the skin a little farther back- 

 wards. The lower jaw was already in this newborn individual considerably broader than the 

 upper jaw. Its two rami meeting in front under the muzzle, were curved so much outwards 

 as to extend about their middle, much beyond the upper jaw. For the purpose of covering this 

 interval, an under lip of considerable thickness below, but having a sharp upper edge, ascends 

 from the uppermost part of the lower jaw in an oblique and inward direction. It has its greatest 

 height (thirteen inches) about midway between the foremost point of the snout and the angle of 

 the mouth, though somewhat nearer to the latter. Posteriorly it gradually diminishes ; towards 

 the front, at a distance of about seven inches from the symphysis, it sinks abruptly downwards, 

 so as to produce a roundish hollow into which the somewhat prominent point of the snout fits 

 while the mouth is shut. At the same time, the lateral edges of the under lip are placed along 

 the upper jaw, completely hiding the comparatively small upper lip. 



The external nostrils, the so-called blow holes, are situated as already mentioned, on the 

 top of an obtuse elevation, called by whalers "the crown. "^ Their distance from the point of 

 the snout was, in the newborn specimen, two feet five inches. We have had an opportunity of 

 examining them, not only on this individual and the two foetuses, but also in the full-grown, 

 forty-four feet and a half long specimen. They have the form of two arcs of a circle (three 

 inches long in the young, and eight inches in the fidl-grown one), with their convexities turned 

 towards each other (Plate I, figs. 2 and 3), but so that their distance from each other is much 

 less before (in the young seven lines, in the full grown one two inches) than behind (in the 

 young two inches seven lines, in the full-grown one seven inches and a quarter). The inclination 

 of their foremost corners in a contrary direction, or towards each other, was only very slightly 

 indicated in all the specimens, both old, young, and foetal, certainly not so much by far, as in 

 Scoresby's figure.^ The more ancient statements about the blow holes being sigmoid, or having 

 the shape of the holes of a violin, must therefore be considered as wrong, or at least very much 

 exaggerated. 



On the inner side, the nostrils are limited by the cartilaginous septum of the nose, and 

 have a sharp and unyielding edge. Outwardly, on the contrary, they are bounded by a thick tumid 



^ The Spitzbergen and Davis' Sti'aits Tivhalers, at least, call this elevation by that name 

 (Scoresby, ' Ace. of the Arctic Reg.,' ii, p. 319, note) ; but the Southern whalers understand, according 

 to the verbal communication of some of them, and the statement of Jules-Lecomte (' Pratique de la peclie 

 de la baleine dans les mers du Sud,' Paris, 1833, p. 71), by the name of "the crown," an elevation 

 a little in front of the one just mentioned (see Schlegel's figure of the Japan Right-whale in 

 ' Fauna Japonica'), which in all the right-whales living in the more temperate seas, is regularly covered 

 by coronulas and tubicinellas, as well as by dense crowds of cyami, thus acquiring a snoAvv colour, 

 and serving as a mark to the whalers. 



" 'Journal,' &c., p. 153. 



