ON THE GREENLAND RIGHT- WHALE. 65 



of the individuals examined by us, and even of the next layer beneath, consisting of flat 

 epidermic cells, the fætus alone had still some portions left in several places. That layer of the 

 epidermis, on the contrary, which is perforated by the long papillæ of the corium, and which, 

 generally known by the name of Mattak, is highly valued in Greenland for the nourishment 

 it aifords, was found nearly everywhere, either still firmly attached to, or lying loose on the 

 skin where the papillæ of the corium had been decomposed and torn. The thickness of the layer 

 of the mattak, which in the Cetaceans always chiefly determines that of the epidermis, varied 

 much in different parts of the body. It has its greatest thickness (one inch) on the back of the 

 head and on the neck ; near the blow-holes it was about seven lines, behind and beneath the eye 

 only four lines. On the throat and the anterior part of the belly it was eight lines thick ; on the 

 fins and the lobes of the tail generally rather thin, especially towards their posterior sharp edge, 

 where it was only one line thick. Finally, it appears to be equally thin near all the natural 

 openings, where it is continued into the mucous membrane.-^ 



The colom-, as far as it may be ascertained by that of the mattak, was still very well marked 

 on the newborn specimen. On the entire upper part of the body it was bluish-black, towards the 

 lower parts it gradually became lighter, and on the under side it was on the whole greyish ; 

 the throat however and the lower jaw had a chalky white colour, except the hindmost third 

 of the underlip, which had the same bluish-black colour as the back. A small circular bluish- 

 grey spot about four lines in diameter was found round each of the six or seven hairs affixed 

 to the inferior edge of the underlip. Whether the same was the case with the far more densely 

 growing hairs of the anterior part of the underlip could not be ascertained, as the mattak had come 

 off in this place. The thick anterior edge of the fins was M'hite from the root towards the outer 

 corner, where the colour gradually became bluish-grey. Beneath the place where the fins issued 

 from the body we found a whitish-grey spot, and finally the bluish-black colour of the back was 

 continued directly from the vent over the whole tail. 



CAVITY OF THE MOUTH. 



From the examination of the exterior of the North whale we will now pass to the description 

 of the cavity of its mouth, especially as far as the whalebone is concerned, founding our observa- 

 tions, as before, on the condition it presented in the newborn individual. 



The tongue, extraordinarily large, is firmly fixed almost as far as its obtusely rounded 

 point ; its thickness (height) is greater than its breadth ; it is broadest (seven inches) in the 



^ In a sucter nineteen feet long, Scoresby asserts that lie found the epidermis one inch nine 

 lines (Englist) thick ; but, strange enough, when speaking of the full-grown animal, he states that its 

 epidermis has only half the thickness of the newborn sucker {' Journal,' &c., p. 149). In some detached 

 portions of the skin, which were sent us with the forty-four and a half feet long skeleton, and which 

 had been taken near the openings of the ears and the blow-holes, we, however, found the thickness to 

 be six or seven lines, or just as thick (especially in one of these places) as in the newborn sucker ; 

 and indeed it is not very probable that the epidermis should decrease in thickness during the growth 

 of the animal. 



