210 ACCOUNT OF A FIN-WHALE. 



animal ; and I am inclined to believe, that these 

 horny laminae, have this analogy with the teeth 

 of other animals, that they do not all appear at 

 once in the young, but gradually increase in num- 

 ber as the jaw enlarges with the creature's growth. 

 In the Cherbourg specimen, GeofFroy de Valognc 

 tells us there were only 200 laminae on each side : 

 in the Alloa specimen, there were about 300 on 

 each side. 



I have stated, that, in the Alloa whale, the up- 

 per jaw w T as only 44 somewhat narrower" than 

 the under 5 while in the Baleinoptere museau- 

 pointu, La Cepede characterizes it as " beaucoup 

 44 plus etroite." I am inclined to suspect, how- 

 ever, thafc La Cepede has here used too strong an 

 expression through mere carelessness, — a charge 

 of which he may easily be convicted in many 

 instances*. The under jaw being much wider 

 than the upper, is one principal characteristic of the 

 rorqual or Balaena musculus. But La Cepede fur- 



* See the Rev. Mr Fleming's description of a Nar- 

 wal, p. 147. of this volume. — From information com- 

 municated to me by my friend Mr William Scoresby 

 junior of Whitby, — a very accurate observer, who has 

 been eight voyages to the Greenland seas, — I am much 

 inclined to suspect, that La Cepede has constituted 

 his two species of Narwals without sufficient evi- 

 dence. The cider figures of the Sea-Unicorn have no re- 

 semblance to any animal seen in the Northern Seas, far- 

 ther than in possessing a twisted horn : the drawing fur- 

 nished to La Cepede by Sir Joseph Banks, seems to have 

 been the first appr^ch to a correct resemblance of thr- 



