62 ESCHRICHT AND REINHARDT 



fold of the skin representing the exterior wall of the nostril, that may be so contracted by 

 muscular fibres, that either nostril is transformed into a circular opening, just as with the single 

 nostrils of the toothed whales, when the tumid anterior lip, corresponding with the exterior walls 

 of the two nostrils coalesced, is in a state of contraction. 



The eyes are placed very low in the Greenland whale ; in the newborn animal only two inches 

 above the angle of the mouth, on the top of a small elevation, one foot and three quarters farther 

 back than the blow holes. The fissure between the eyelids was in the newborn specimen only 

 three quarters of an inch long, in the full grown individual two inches and a quarter ; but before 

 and behind it was prolonged by a sulcus on the smface of the skin, by which means its length 

 became five inches and a half. The eyelids themselves were, in the full-grown specimens, six 

 inches broad, and both taken together five inches high, of a yellowish-white colour, with small 

 black spots like gunpowder marks ; this colour contrasted very much with the jet-black colour 

 of the skin around. In the young animal they were only moveable to a very small extent ; 

 in the full grown specimen they had, in consequence of having been preserved in brine, 

 become as hard as wood ; no eyelashes were found. The eyeball itself was very small, in the full 

 grown animal two inches (that of the humpback being two inches and three quarters), when 

 measured from the foremost to the hindmost point ; its transverse diameter was two inches and 

 three quarters (that of Mega])tera being three inches and a half) ; the transversely placed pupil 

 was seven lines long. 



The external orifices of the ear were found in the newborn whale, to be nine inches and 

 six lines behind, and one inch seven lines below the eyes ; they were almost circular, and about 

 two lines in diameter.-' But in the relative position of these organs considerable deviations 

 seem to occur; for in the foetus that was eight feet and a half long, the orifices of the ear were 

 found to be only three inches behind the eyes, and one inch higher than a horizontal line 

 supposed to be drawn from the fissure between the eyelids in a backward direction. We have 

 also had an opportunity of examining the orifices of the ear of the full-grown whale, of which 

 besides the complete skeleton, we received several softer parts. They were so small that 

 only a very fine probe could be introduced through them. 



It is stated by Martens,^ and still more positively by Scoresby,^ that several hairs are to be 

 found on the lips of the Greenland whale, as in those of most other Cetaceous animals, especially 

 when young. In the newborn whale^ as well as in the two foetuses, these had indeed fallen 



^ Scoresby's statements about this point of the structure of the whale, to be found in the two 

 works in which he mentions the Greenland whale, seem to be somewhat inconsistent with each other. 

 For this excellent, and generally accurate author, says, in his ' Journal of a Voyage,' &c.j p. 154, " That 

 he has found the external openings of the ear to be one sixth of an inch in diameter in a nineteen feet 

 long sucker ;" but in his ' Account of the Arctic Regions,' vol. i, p. 456, it is on the contrary stated, 

 " The whale has no external ear ; nor can any orifice for the admission of sound be discovered until the 

 skin is removed." Fr. Cuvier has only followed the statement in the latter place when, in his book, 

 ' De I'Histoire naturelle des Cétacés,' p. 367, he tells us that Scoreshy has seen no auditory orifice in 

 the Greenland whale. 



" ' Spitzbergische oder Groenlandische Reise Beschreibung/ Hamburg, 1675, p. 98 : " fornen an 

 den Lefi"tszen unten und oben sitzen kurtze Haar." 



"" ' Account of the Arctic Regions,' vol. i, p, 458. 



