74 ESCHRICHT AND REINHARDT 



number of the blades in a set of whalebone, especially because anteriorly and posteriorly they 

 become so small and so irregularly placed, that we cannot strictly distinguish between chief-blades 

 and subsidiary blades, or make out how many of them belong to one and the same transverse row. 

 In the newborn specimen, however, we could distinguish in the external row of the pulps of each 

 set of whalebone 308 regularly placed cross-folds or pulps, to which must be added an approxi- 

 mation to the number of those irregularly placed, at least 1 1 behind and 4 or 5 before, so that 

 the whole number must be rated at 324, which also seems to be the number of the laminæ in 

 full-grown individuals. In the whalebone sets of the twenty-two feet long individual, we could 

 only count 310 distinct blades, and the indistinct cross rows in the anterior and posterior 

 parts could not be estimated at more than about 14 in all. As the number of the laminæ 

 are thus not larger in the half-grown whale than in the newborn one, it is certainly very 

 improbable that it should be increased afterwards, nor do we know of any observation tending to 

 favour such a supposition. The whalers most commonly bring home from the large North whales 

 500 laminæ in all, or 250 from each side, but the most posterior and anterior they leave disre- 

 garded. Some estimate of the number of the laminæ of whalebone found in the whale captured in 

 1859, near Holsteinsborg, is rendered possible, as its discarded small laminæ came into our hands. 

 To the Greenland Commercial Company 518 laminæ in all were sent, 100 of which were set down 

 as under-size, and in our four extremities of the two sets we could count 86 in all, which would 

 make 604, or 302 in the exterior row of either side. It can hardly be doubted but that several 

 were lost between the under-sized laminæ and the largest of those which were still kept together 

 by the gums ; but that they were many more than 22 in either set, seemed to be refuted by a 

 direct comparison of the size of those left in the palate with the smallest of those taken out. 



As to the gradual growth of the baleen-blades in point of length and breadth we must first 

 direct the attention of our readers to the fact that as their number is really the same in the new- 

 born as in the full-grown individual, the foremost and hindmost laminæ of both sets must grow 

 very slowly ; for not only in the twenty-two feet long female, but even in the forty-four feet long 

 quite full-grown male these laminæ were very short, the smallest blades being only about two 

 inches long. 



The same may be said respecting the growth of the subsidiary blades as related to that of 

 the chief-blades ; for whereas the latter grow from three inches to a length of eleven feet, it is 

 certain that the largest subsidiary blades never become much longer than one foot, as a glance at 

 the inner edge of the chief-blade will be sufficient to show. 



How fast, on the contrary, the middle laminæ of the Greenland whale grow after its birth 

 has already been partially shown in what we have said above. In the newborn animal they were 

 (along the outer edge) four inches four lines long (measured to the points of the hairs), one inch 

 nine lines broad, about two thirds of a line thick, and their distance from each other was about 

 one line. 



In the twenty-two feet long female the longest baleen was thirty-six inches and a half long, 

 four inches and a half broad, where it was affixed to the palate, and about one line and a half 

 thick ; in the forty-fom- feet long male the longest lamina was eleven feet long, eleven inches 

 broad, and five lines thick. These measurements agree pretty well with those made by Scoresby,^ 

 which are as follows : 



^ ' Account,' i, page 464. 



