ON THE GREENLAND RIGHT-WHALE. 



75 





Female. 



Male. 



Female. 





Male. 





Feet. 



Feet. 



Feet. 



Feet. 



Feet. 



Feet. 



Total length 



17 



28 



.50 



51 



52 



58 



Length of the head 



5 



8i 



m 



16 



20 



19 



Length of the longest blade . 



1 



6 



11b 



101 



13^ 



lU 



It will be seen from this that the length of the baleen relative to that of the entire animal has 

 by no means the same ratio. The greatest difference in this respect evidently originates in the 

 circumstance that during the growth of the animal the larainæ only gradually attain to their full 

 relative size, which from one fiftieth (in the newborn animal) is at length increased to almost one 

 fourth (in our forty-four feet and a half long individual), or even upwards of that ratio (in 

 Scoresby's fifty-two feet long male). 



Judging from the observations before us we should suppose that it is only in the males that 

 the laminæ attain to this extraordinary length, while in the females they only grow to one fifth of 

 the length of the body. The very largest blades, especially all those of between eleven and 

 fifteen^ Danish feet in length, must accordingly be supposed unconditionally to have belonged 

 to male individuals, and their considerable difi'erence in point of length may probably be explained 

 by the circumstance that the laminæ still continue to grow for a long time after the body has 

 reached its full size. 



That the whalebone-blades of the Greenland whale may be distinguished not only from those 

 of the rorquals but also from those of other right-whales, both by their form and by their internal 

 , structure, has already been stated, and the distinguishing characters have been pointed out. We 

 are the less disposed to enter into any renewed examination of this question, as these distinguishing 

 characters have not been given as the results of examinations of our own materials but as the 

 results of the experiences of practical men who, either as traders or mechanics, are employed in 

 dealing with this very common article of commerce. We have limited ourselves to making such 

 observations only as might convince us of the trustworthiness of the assigned characters, and we 

 have had an excellent opportunity of satisfying ourselves on this point in the immense stores of 

 whalebone contained in the warehouse of Messrs. Schwartz and Son, who have kindly permitted 

 us to make use of them for our purpose. 



On the other hand, we have had from our own materials an opportunity of making some obser- 

 vations as to the relative position of these laminæ and their difference from one another in the 

 Greenland whale. Such observations can of coiirse be made with certainty only in complete sets 

 of whalebone with all the laminæ in their natural position, and such we can hardly hope to find in 

 Museums, except in unborn or newborn individuals. Nevertheless we have succeeded by the kind 

 assistance of Mr. Olrik in obtaining these parts of a half-grown female Greenland whale for 

 our inspection ; for they were, as we have already stated, still found affixed to the twenty-two feet 

 long skeleton, sent in 1857 to the Royal Museum of Natural History. This distinguished 



1 An instance of this extraordinary length is mentioned by Pastor Glahn, in his anony- 

 mous memoir " Annotations to the first three books of David Crantz's History of Greenland," 

 page 140. 



