206 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



which, I was told, were due to the rubbing off of old barnacles 

 which had been embedded in the skin at these spots. 



There are twelve large plicae on either side of the under surface 

 of the lower jaw ; they extend backwards to within four feet of 

 the genital sheath, and in young Whales they terminate in a 

 central spiral. Their function seems to be to allow great expan- 

 sion of the skin, both in the act of swallowing and in respiration. 



The large transverse processes of the vertebras extend prac- 

 tically, after the region of the neck, from end to end of the 

 body, in the median line between the summit of the back and the 

 floor of the abdomen. All the vital parts are below this line, 

 and are never exposed above the surface of the water in " blow- 

 ing." Though I never saw it myself, it is said that these Whales 

 will sometimes leap right out of the water in play. All the upper 

 part of the body— that is, all above the transverse processes — is 

 made up of the huge dorsal, lumbar, and caudal muscles, and 

 is not directly vital if struck with the harpoon. If this were 

 borne in mind, and the harpoon was always fired sufficiently 

 low, a struck Whale would never require a second harpoon. 



Palate and Baleen-plates. — I cannot quite reconcile my notes 

 and observations with the description of the relationship of these 

 parts and structures to one another found in most text-books, as 

 in Flower & Lydekker's ' Mammals Living and Extinct.' I will 

 describe the parts separately. 



The palate proper is about eighteen inches wide. Just inside 

 the inner edges of the baleen plates, or "tinners" as they are 

 called by the whalers, there is, first, on either side, a raised 

 longitudinal rounded ridge, formed by a thick fold of mucous 

 membrane, which apparently can be raised and depressed; 

 inside these folds, which are, presumably, the analogues of the 

 gums, there is, on either side, a deep fissure separating the gums 

 from the palate proper. The folds or gums mentioned above 

 extend back for about half the length of the mouth, and the 

 palate proper, depressed between the gums at its anterior part, 

 gradually takes the form of a rounded ridge, two feet high from 

 the bases of the " finners," behind the lips or gums, and the 

 ridge is about six inches wide on its summit. 



Note. — The ridges of mucous membrane inside the mouth 

 are in the position of the gums, but they are mobile, and they 





