ACCOUNT OF A FIN-WHALE. 203 



fin was placed very far down the back, about 

 twelve feet only from the extremity of the tail, 

 and nearly over the vent. It was of an acute 

 triangular shape, blunt in front, and sloping off to 

 a thin edge behind ; slightly hooked, the curva- 

 ture being towards the tail. From its shape, the 

 sailors engaged in the whale-fishery, call such a 

 dorsal fin a pike. 



The under jaw projected about three inches be- 

 yond the upper jaw. It was nearly fourteen feet 

 long. It was somewhat broader or wider than 

 the upper jaw. 



In the upper jaw there were two rows of short 

 horny laminae placed perpendicularly, and very 

 closely set together * : the largest laminae were in 



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* By homy lamince, I need scarcely observe, I mean the 

 ivhalebone of commerce. " The substance called whale- 

 " bone," Mr J. Hunter remarks, " is of the same nature as 

 " horn : it is wholly composed of animal substance, and 

 *' extremely elastic. From this it must appear," he adds, 

 " that the term hone is an improper one." — Phil. Trans. 

 1787. There is no appropriate and correct term, there- 

 fore, in the English language, equivalent to fanons in 

 the French. But k is remarkable, that we do possess an. 

 appropriate word in the Scottish language. That word is 

 baleen, evidently from the old French. It is still employ- 

 ed by the Scottish whale-fisher s. The term appears to have 

 been familiar to Sir R. SibbakL In the preface to his 

 " Fhalainologia," he says, " Quaedam balense corneas 

 " laminar, habent, quae nautis nostris dicuntur whales 

 " with baleen ; quod enim Angli whalebone, nostri baleen 

 " vocant." 



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