MAMMALIA. CETE. Whale. 357 



787 |8. Iceland Common Whale. — 1. /2. B. Myjlicetus ijlandica. 

 Of a black colour with a whitifh glofs. Briff. regn. an. 350. n. 2. 



Nord-kapper. Egede, groenl. 53. Anderf. ifl. 219. Crantz. groenl. 145. 



788 y. Larger Common Whale. — 1. y. B. Myfiicetus major. 

 Has no fpiracle. Raj. pifc. 16. 



Inhabits the Ar&ic Seas, efpecially about Greenland and Spitzbergen. — The Common Whale is 

 of enormous bulk, meaiuring from fifty or fixty, to feventy, eighty, and even an hundred feet long; 

 it fwims with immenfe velocity, but, notwithftanding its vaft fize, having no weapons either of de- 

 fence or offence, it is exceedingly fhy and timid. It lives chiefly on the Cancer pedatus, and ocula- 

 tus,~Argonauta arftica, and Clio bitentaculata ; the fecond, or Iceland, variety, which is fmaller and 

 more {lender than the Greenland kind, feeds on Medufae and Clupeae * : It is probable that the 

 defcription of the third variety, or Larger Common Whale, as being -without any fpiracle, which is 

 admitted by the celebrated Ray on the authority of Sibbald, is either totally erroneous, or founded 

 on miftake, as it differs fo completely, not only from the general analogy of the Whale genus, but 

 from the whole cetaceous order. The female Whale has two proportionally fmall paps fituated on 

 the abdomen, near the vagina, which fhe has the power of retracting ; fhe is fuppofed to go nine 

 or ten months with young, and produces moftly one, feldom two, at a time, which fhe fuckles and 

 takes care of with great affection. The flefh of the Whale is extremely dry and infipid, except about 

 the tail, which is more juicy, yet ftill very taftelels ; between the fkin and flefh the whole body is 

 furrounded with a vaft layer of fat or blubber, of which feventy or eighty buts, or large barrels, 

 are fometimes procured from one Whale ; they are hunted with great attention, on account of this 

 blubber, for the fake of a coarfe oil which is extracted from it, and it appears that this trade was 

 confiderable even in the time of Illdore and Vincentius ; it is mentioned as common and very profi- 

 table on the French coaft by Brito, a poet of the twelfth century. The horny laminae, which are 

 found in the upper jaw of the Whale, are likewife a valuable article of commerce, under the name 

 of Whale-bone ; thefe, from frequent ufe, ferving to catch the food of the animal, are fplit at the mar- 

 gin and the extremity into long, thick briftles ; there -are about feven hundred laminae of this fub- 

 ftance in the mouth of each individual, and, when the animal is full grown, the middle lamina, which 

 is the longeft, meafures from eighteen to twenty feet long. 



The head of the Common Whale is nearly one third part of the animal, being flattifh on the up- 

 per part, and furmoimted by a tubercle or projection, in which the fpiracle, or breathing pipe, is 

 fituated •, the mouth is very large, and ftretches far backwards, almoft as far as the eyes, in form of 

 the letter y"; the lower jaw, efpecially about the middle, is very broad; the tongue is very foft, being 

 compofed almoft entirely of fat ; it is of a white colour, fpotted with black at the fides, and adheres 

 *by its under furface to the lower jaw ; the eyes are placed at a great diftance from each other on the 

 fides of the head, over the entrance to the ears, and are very little larger than thofe of an Ox ; the 

 fkin is about an inch thick, and the fcarf lkin about the thicknefs of parchment ; this laft is very 

 fmooth, feldom entirely black, or variegated with black and yellow, and very rarely of a white co- 

 lour. 



* All thefe animals, belonging to the fucceeding clafTes, will be hereafter particularly c^fcribed in the 

 courfe of this work, — T. 



