GREAT MYSTICETE. 



I have myself seen, but one above the rest, which 

 was a female, was a beautiful one: she was all 

 over marbled black and yellow. Those that are 

 black are not all of the same colour ; for some are 

 as black as velvet, others coal-black, and others of 

 the colour of a tench. The Whale loseth its beau- 

 tiful colours when it grows dry ; the black becom- 

 ing brownish, and the white losing its clearness. 

 When they are well, they are as slippery as an 

 Eel ; but one may stand upon them, because they 

 are so soft that the flesh giveth way to our weight. 

 The outward skin is thin, like parchment, and is 

 easily pulled off by the hand when the flesh grows 

 hot by the fermentation of the inward parts after 

 the animal's death. The bones of the whale are 

 hard, like those of large four-footed beasts, but 

 porous, like a spunge, and filled with marrow, 

 and when that is consumed out, they will retain 

 a great quantity of water, for the holes are large, 

 like those of an honeycomb. Two great and 

 strong bones hold up the under lip : they lie one 

 against the other, and both together make a figure 

 like a half-moon, but one by itself is like a quar- 

 ter of a circle. Some of these I have seen lying 

 on the coasts of Spitzbergen about twenty feet 

 long, of a white colour, as if calcined. The flesh 

 of the Whale is coarse and hard, like that of a 

 bull : it is intermixed with many sinews, and is 

 very dry and lean when boiled, because the fat is 

 only between the flesh and skin. If suffered to 

 lie a little, it soon becomes black and tainted. 

 That of the tail boils the tenderest, and is not 

 Y. It. P. ji. 52 



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