74 R. BROWN ON THE CETAOEA OF GREENLAND. 



the body, but is rather thicker on the tail, on which organ, however, 

 it is of a uniform thickness. The blubber varies from about a foot 

 to eighteen inches in thickness, tolerably uniformly throughout, 

 except on the head, &c. ; the colour is like lard or pork fat in 

 young animals, but in the older ones rosy-coloured, from the 

 quantity of nutrient blood-vessels in it. The flesh is dark and 

 coarse-fibred, but when properly cooked tastes not unlike tough beef. 

 When the French had whalers in Davis Strait, the sailors, with 

 the usual aptitude of their nation for cuisine, made dainty dishes 

 of it; but our seamen, imbued with the virulent dietetic con- 

 servatism of the Saxon, prefer to grow scurvy-riddled rather than 

 partake of this coarse though perfectly wholesome food. 



The best figure of the Right Whale is that of Scoresby ; but in 

 Harris's " Collection of Voyages " there is a very good figure of 

 the animal (almost as good as Scoresby's), accompanied by a very 

 tolerable description. I think Scoresby's figure is erroneous, in so 

 far as I have never been able to see the prominence behind the 

 head which he figures ; and the notch shown in the outline figure 

 of the genus in the first edition of the " British Museum Catalogue 

 of Whales " does not exist in nature ; but as Dr. Gray does not 

 mention it in his description, I presume that it is placed there 

 through an error of the draughtsman or lithographer. 



The size of the Greenland Whale has, I think, been a little 

 under-rated. The late Dr. Scoresby, from abundant data, con- 

 sidered that we have no record of the Whale to be relied upon 

 which gives a greater length than 60 feet. While agreeing with 

 him so far that I believe that to be generally the extreme, I am 

 very doubtful whether they did not at one time, before they 

 were so ruthlessly slaughtered, attain a greater size, or that 

 individuals are not even now found of a greater size. The position 

 in which a Whale is measured alongside the ship, when slightly 

 doubled, is apt to introduce an error into the measurement and 

 make it smaller than it really is. The late Chevalier Charles 

 Louis Giesecke mentions one which Avas killed at Godhavn in 

 Greenland in 1813 which measured 67 feet, and I shall presently 

 give the measurements of one equally large. The largest one, 

 however, which is known to have been killed in the Arctic seas 

 was one which the late Capt. Alexander Deuchars (whom T have 

 already had occasion to mention as a most trustworthy and ex- 

 perienced whaler, and personally acquainted with the killing of 

 upwards of 500 Whales) obtained in Davis Strait in the year 1849. 

 It measured 80 feet in length : the breadth of the tail, from tip 

 to tip, Avas 29 feet ; the longest lamina of whalebone measured 

 14 feet; the amount of whalebone in its mouth was large; but 

 the blubber was only about 6 inches in thickness, and only yielded 

 27 tuns of oil.* The Whales killed in the Spitzbergen sea are 

 said, as a rule, to be generally less and " lighter-boned " {i. e. with 

 less whalebone) than those of Davis Strait, which may possibly 



* The tun of oil is 252 gallons wine-measifre ; at a temperature of GO^Fahr. 

 it weighs 1,933 lbs. 12 oz. 14 dr. avoirdupois. 



