R. BROWN ON THE CETACEA OF GREENLAND. 73 



The pectoral fins (or, more properly, svviinming-paws*) are of 

 a darkish grey at the axilla, rounded superiorly and bevelled off 

 inferiorily. The upper edge is arcuate in form, with a slight 

 angularity medially ; the inferior edge with the outline in a gentle 

 sigmoid curve, with the greater convexity of the curve anteriorly. 

 The caudal extremity, if not the homologue, is undoubtedly the 

 analogue of the posterior extremities in other Mammals. It is 

 almost unnecessary to say that the substance of the tail is non- 

 musculaif, though it has been described as such in various publica- 

 tions^ the only power -which it possesses being derived from the 

 attachment of some of the lumbar and other muscles in the 

 extremity of the vertebral column. A transverse section of the 

 root of the tail shows : — 1, the epidermis ; 2^ the soft skin ; 3, the 

 blubber, or a cellular substance containing fat- cells ; 4, cartilage 

 enveloping the tendinous cells ; 5, strong muscular fasciae, through 

 which the tendons play ; 6, spinal canal and vessels ; 7, spinal 

 cartilages; 8, blood-vessels; and, 9, synovial glands. A trans- 

 verse section of the tail shows skin, blubber, tendinous envelope, 

 blood-vessels, and a central cartilaginous massf. Though, per se, 

 the tail has no power, yet as the instrument through which the 

 lumbar muscles (the tendinous attachments of which seem to be 

 prolonged into the cartilaginous substance of the tail) work it 

 exerts enormous force. The figure usually engraved in Ijoys' 

 books of sea adventures, and copied from Scoresby's " Account of 

 the Arctic Regions," of a Whale tossing a boat and its crew up 

 into the air, is generally looked upon by all the whalers to whom 

 I have shown it as an artistic exaggeration. Accidents of this 

 nature are very rare, and never proceed to such an extent ; and 

 I have no doubt that Dr. Scoresby's artist has taken liberties 

 with his description, that worthy navigator being himself above 

 any suspicion of exaggeration for the sake of effect. Capt. Alex- 

 ander Deuchars, who has now made upwards of fifty voyages into 

 the Arctic regions, informed me that he had known a Whale toss a 

 boat nearly 3 feet into the air, and itself rise so high out of the 

 water that you could see beneath it, but that, if Scoresby's figure 

 was correct, the Whale must have tossed the boat very many feet 

 into the air — a feat which he did not think Avas within the bounds 

 of, if not possibly, yet of probability. 



The teats are hardly the size of a cow's, are placed about the 

 middle, and one inch from the edge of the sulcus, but in the dead 

 animal are almost universally retracted within the white-coloured 

 or spotted sulcus, in the middle of which they are situated. The 

 milk is thick, rich, and rather sweet tasted. The foecal evacua- 

 tions of the Whale are red-coloured, most probably due to the red 

 Cetochill and other animals which form the bulk of its food. The 

 skin (including the cuticle) is about 1^ inch in thickness all over 



* Fleming, " Philosophy of Zoology." 



f A tolerably good account of these and other points in the economy of the 

 Cetacea, mixed up with a heterogeneous mass of errors, is to be found in the 

 (deservedly?) neglected "Natural History of the Cetacea," &c., by 11. W. 

 Dewhurst (1834), 



