42 E. LÖNNBERG, CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FAUNA OF SOUTH GEORGIA. 



In another male specimen whieh had a total length of 15,21 m. the baleen was 

 »about 20 cm. longer» than in the first measured specimen, Sörling has written in his 

 notes. The baleen of that one should thus have reached a length of about 238 cm. 

 The baleen should in the latter case have been thicker and provided with longer 

 hairs as well. 



The hairs fringing the inner side of the blades is black, very fine and soft. 

 Each blade of baleen is very narrow (Pl. VIII fig. 39) and pointed, the basal breadth 

 of a blade measuring about 180 cm. in length is only about 18 or perhaps 18 Va cm. 

 Although the texture of the baleen is very fine, the blades are rather thick, but the 

 thickness is very variable, even in the same blade. The inner edge is thicker than 

 the outer, and in addition to this some portions are thicker than others. In a blade 

 measuring about 180 cm. in length so different measurements of the thickness of the 

 proximal half may be obtained as from 6 to 10 mm. 



The length of the baleen of the southern Black whale is comparatively very 

 great. In the two instances quoted above it amounts to resp. 15,4 and 15,6 % of 

 the total length of the whale itself. 



According to the absolute measurements communicated by True (20), the cor- 

 responding percentage for the largest North American Nordcaper (53 feet long) re- 

 corded in the tables of this author should be about 13,3. For another smaller Nord- 

 caper from Charleston the same percentage was 10,7. From European Nordcapers 

 True (20) has only obtained two such relative measurements giving a percentage of 

 6,6 and 7,i resp. and these were taken from specimens of approximately the same 

 size as the Charleston whale, one of them being 3 feet longer, and the other 1 foot 

 shorter than the latter. Concerning this True (20) remarks: »It will be observed 

 that while in the young European specimens the proportional length of the whale- 

 bone falls below that of the American specimens, nevertheless, the largest Iceland 

 whalebone equals or exceeds that of the largest American specimen. While the 

 discrepancies above mentioned are not explainable at present, it appears that adult 

 European and American specimens have whalebone of equal length. » 



Although it thus exists a discrepancy with regard to the relative dimensions 

 of the baleen of the Nordcaper on both sides of the North Atlantic it appears to be 

 stated that a larger = older specimen has even comparatively longer baleen than a 

 smaller = younger. When thus the two southern Black whales, the measurements 

 of which have been recorded above, have not attained such a size as the largest of 

 True's American Nordcapers but, nevertheless, the one has absolutely longer and 

 the other nearly as long baleen, and the baleen of both is, comparatively, a good 

 deal longer than that of the larger American Nordcaper, it may be concluded that 



cesses, tlie longest of wliich attain a length of 11 — 13 cm. and have a thickness of 3 — 8 mm. Some of these 

 are pointed at the tip, others are rounded, some are even, some nodose or otherwise irregular. In tlie base 

 of at least the thickest- oues cntaneous prolongations extend from the central pa pilla. The processes themselves 

 are of epitlielial origin and correspond to baleen, but tliey are loose and brittle and in a state of dissolution 

 as if tliey were rotten. They smelt very badly from the first, Söki.ing says, and even preserved in alcohol 

 tliey have a bad smell like rotten horn. 



