7S ESCHRICHT AND REINHARDT 



blades are covered by the wreath they may also be supposed to be surrounded by the intermediate 

 substance. The hairs have not been reckoned in these measurements as their length depends on 

 several fortuitous circumstances. The longest were four or four and a half or even five inches 

 long and were placed on the 296th lamina. In front of these only some few were found of a 

 similar length. 



Finally, we shall, before proceeding to another part of our essay, enter on a comparison of 

 the form of the single blades of our whalebone sets with one another, especially as we thus shall 

 have an opportunity of showing how it may easily be determined of any given blade what place 

 it occupied in the baleen-set. 



The inner hairy lateral edge of either set of whalebone is, taken as a whole, somewhat hollow, 

 though scarcely perceptibly in the posterior part, and in the very hindmost part, on the contrary, 

 it is slightly convex. This form of the inner surface of the whalebone sets is caused by the cir- 

 cumstance that the baleen-blades of the Greenland whale are most commonly curved in the form of 

 a sabre, and placed with the concave edge turned invi^ards and the convexity turned outwards, but 

 this curve disappears gradually in the posterior parts, so that even the size-laminæ behind are 

 quite straight, and the small under-size blades are here even curved in an opposite direction, so 

 that in these the interior hairy edge becomes convex, and the exterior smooth one becomes 

 (oncave. 



It is therefore always easy to know in the under-size blades whether they belong to the 

 anterior or posterior parts of the sets, and, in the size-blades, we may at least by their greater or 

 smaller curvature in addition to their length always be able to determine pretty nearly how 

 far they have been situated towards the middle, or towards either of the extremities. 



The exterior surface of the whalebone sets is formed by the exterior wreath and by the outer 

 edges of all the laminæ taken together. Accordingly this surface would, if the blades were placed 

 in an exactly transverse position, appear like a railing, affording a free view through the interstices. 

 But this, as is well known, is prevented by the circumstance that each lamina partially covers the 

 lamina nearest behind it. This overlapping is, no doubt, partially effected by an oblique position, 

 by which their anterior surfaces are turned somewhat in an outward direction, though more 

 particularly, as is generally known and as has been already pointed out by Martens,^ by the blades 

 being generally inflected along the outer edge, so that their posterior surfaces are excavated in the 

 shape of a groove, whereas their anterior surfaces are convex longitudinally. In the foremost 

 half of the set this convexity is greatest, and as far as the hindmost third of the set (that is, 

 to the 191st lamina) it is still great enough to cause the blades to cover each other, so that 

 any view from without between the blades is perfectly obstructed. But from the beginning of 

 the posterior third this relative position of the blades is gradually altered, and from the 240th 

 blade the imbricate position takes place, though far less distinctly, in an opposite direction. A 

 groove-like excavation along the exterior edge of the anterior surfaces of these laminæ is, however, 

 only very inconsiderable, the overlapping here being principally occasioned by the oblique position 

 of the laminæ. 



It will be readily seen how these peculiarities of the blades, according to their different places 



^ L. c, p. 100 : " Ausswendig aber hat das Fischbein eine Hole, denn es ist umgeleget wie ein 

 Wasser-Ronne, da es auf einander lieget, wie Krebs-schilde oder Daclisteine : sonst mochte es leicht die 

 luitersten LefFtzen wund machen." 



