54 Account of the Greenland Whale. [Jai^, 



and is said to be di'y and lean when boiled^ because there is but 



little fat intermixed with the flesh. 



The following are the dimensions of two different whales^ 

 taken with accuracy 



Ft. Inch. 



First. The longest laminae of whalebone .... ^ .... .10 10 



Full length 51 



Length of the head 16 



Diameter of the body 6 



Behind the fins ... 9 or 10 



Length of the fin 7 



Breadth 4 



Breadth of the tail .20 



Depth from the indented part, where the two lobes join, 



to the junction with the body 4 



Diameter of the body at its junction with the tail^ per- 

 pendicularly 2^ 



And horizontally 2 



Second. The largest laminae of the whalebone 1 14. 



Extreme length 58 



Circumference just behind the fins 30 or 35 



Length of the under part of the head 19 



Breadth , 12 



Length of the jaw-bone 23 



Length of the fin , 9 



Breadth of the tail 24 



Thickness of the blubber at a medium 9 or 10 inches, and of k 

 red colour. 



Estimated to produce 19 or 20 tons of oil. 



The food of the whale is generally supposed tocotisist of diffe- 

 rent kinds of sepias, medusae, or the ciio llmacina of Linnaeus; but 

 I have great reason to believe, that it is chiefly, if not alto- 

 gether, of the squills or shrimp tribe; for, on examining the 

 stomach of one of large size, nothing else was found in it 5 they 

 xvere about half an inch loii[i:, semi-transparent, and of a pale 

 red coioitr. I also found a great quantity in the mouth of an- 

 other, having been apparently vomited by it. When the whale 

 feeds, it swims with considerable velocity under water, with its 

 mouth wide open; the water enters by the fore-part, but is 

 poured out again at the sides^ and the food is entangled and 

 sifted as it were by the whalebone, which does not allow any 

 thing to escape. 



It seldom remains longer below the surface than twenty or 

 thirty minutes; when it comes up again to blow, it will perhaps 

 leijjain ten^ twenty, or thirty minutes at the surface of the 



