lU A YEAR WITH A WHALER 



inches broad at their base in the gum. The 

 smallest were an inch. All tapered to a point. 

 They were set in the gum with the flat surfaces 

 together and almost touching. They were ex- 

 tremely pliant and at the outer ends could be 

 pulled wide apart. The inner edges were hung 

 with black coarse hair, which seemed exactly 

 like that of a horse's tail. The hair on the small 

 front teeth was an inch long perhaps; on the 

 back teeth, it was from six to ten inchej long. 



Such teeth are beautifully adapted to the 

 animal's feeding habits. The baleen whale 

 feeds on a kind of jelly fish. We saw at times 

 the sea covered with these flat, round, whitish 

 living discs. The whale swims through an area 

 of this food with its mouth open. When it has 

 obtained a mouthful, it closes its jaws. The 

 water is forced out between the slab-like teeth; 

 the jelly fish remain tangled in the hair to be 

 gulped down. 



Our first job after the cutting in of the whale 

 was to cut the baleen from the jaw. It was 

 cut away in bunches of ten or a dozen slabs held 

 together by the gums and stowed away in the 



