158 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



plaintive ny struck upon their ears — and repeated again it 

 seemed to be — during the momentary lulls of the storm. The 

 farmer continued to listen, but hearing nothing more, he 

 descended to the front door and opened it; a dark object 

 lay before him, on the very threshold, and stooping down 

 to touch it, what was his astonishment to behold the poor 

 blind, devoted little seal, apparently dead. The farmer was 

 greatly touched ; he took up the little body gently and carried 

 it into the kitchen, and used every effort to restore it to 

 life but in vain. 



ORDER V "^^^ order is divided into two sub-orders, the 

 Whales and one characterised by the possession of teeth, and 



DoiphinB. the other being toothless. 



The Right The Right Whale when fully grown, attains to 

 Whale, fi-om fifty to sixty-five feet in length, and to from 

 thirty to forty feet in circumference. It is thickest behind the 

 fins. When the mouth is open, it presents a cavity as large as a 

 room, and capable of containing a boat full of men. Its 

 tongue is said to be as large as a stout feather-bed. The 

 tail is a powerful instrument of motion and defence : it is 

 only five or six feet long, but its motions are rapid, and its 

 strength immense. The eyes are situated in the sides of the 

 head; they are very small, being little larger than those of 

 an ox. The whale has no external ear, but there is a small 

 orifice imdei: the skin for the admission of sound. On the 

 most elevated part of the head are two blow holes six or 

 eight inches in length. The mouth, instead of teeth, has 

 two rows of whalebone, each of which contains more than 

 three hundred laminse, the longest of which are about ten 

 or eleven feet. A large whale sometimes contains a ton and 

 a half of whalebone. The colour of the old whale is gray 

 and white, that of the young ones a sort of bluish black. 

 Immediately beneath the skin lies the blubber, or fat; its 

 thickness round the body is eight or ten or twenty inches, 

 varying in different parts : the lips are composed almost 



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