GREAT MYSTICETE. 



481 



hath no other fins but these two, wherewith he 

 steers himself, as a boat is rowed with two oars. 

 The tail doth not stand up, like the tails of fish, 

 but lieth horizontally, as that of the Dolphin, Sec. 

 and it is three and a half or four fathoms broad. 

 The head is the third part of the whole animal, 

 and some have it still bigger. On the upper and 

 under lip are short hairs before. The lips are quite 

 plain, somewhat bended like an S, and they end 

 underneath the eyes, before the two fins. Above 

 the uppermost bended lip he hath black streaks ; 

 some are darkish brown, and they are crooked as 

 the lips are : the lips are smooth, and quite black, 

 round, like the quarter of a circle. When they 

 draw them together, they lock into one another. 

 Within, on the uppermost lip, is the whalebone, 

 of a brown, black, or yellow colour, with streaks 

 of several colours : the whalebones of some whales 

 are blue, and light blue, which two are reckoned 

 to come from young whales. Just before, on the 

 under lip, is a cavity or hole, which the upper lip 

 fits exactly into, as a knife into a sheath. I do 

 really believe that he draweth in the water that he 

 bloweth out through this hole, and so I have also 

 been informed bv seamen. Within his mouth is 

 the whalebone, all hairy as a horse's hair, and it 

 hangs down from both sides, all about his tongue. 

 The whalebone of some Whales is somewhat bend- 

 ed, like a cimeter, and others like a half-moon. 

 The smallest w^halebone is before, in his mouth, 

 and behind towards his throat, and the middle- 

 most is the largest and longest, being sometimes 



