268 NATURE AND WOODCRAFT. 



young. In doing this, it partly turns on its 

 side, and, the teats being protruded, sucking 

 and breathing can proceed simultaneously. 



Naturalists divide the Cetacea into two divi- 

 sions, represented by the "whalebone" and 

 " toothed " whales. In the former, the teeth are 

 replaced by a series of great plates, and these, 

 depending from the palate, constitute the baleen 

 — the whalebone of commerce. The laminge 

 which comprise this, number about five hundred, 

 are ranged about two-thirds of an inch apart, 

 and have their interior edges covered with 

 fringes of hair. Some of these attain to a 

 length of fifteen feet. The cavity of a whale's 

 mouth has been likened to that of an ordinary 

 ship's cabin; and inside the surface conveys 

 the idea of being covered with a thick fur. 

 The soft, spongy tongue is often a monstrous 

 mass ten feet broad and eighteen feet long. 

 It might be thought that the whale, with its 

 vast bulk, would want sea creatures of a large 

 size to nourish it; but this is not so. Its 

 chief food consists of minute molluscs — of Me- 

 dusae and Entomostraca — and with these its 

 immense pasture-grounds in the Northern seas 

 abound. In this connection will be seen the 



