APPENDIX. 535 



ing in this respect in different parts of the same 

 mouth ; but in the great Whale the distances are 

 more considerable. 



The outer row is composed of the longest plates ; 

 and these are in proportion to the different dis- 

 tances between the two jaws, some being four- 

 teen or fifteen feet long, and twelve or fifteen 

 inches broad ; but towards the anterior and pos- 

 terior part of the mouth they are very^hort : they 

 rise for half a foot or more, nearly of equal 

 breadths, and afterwards shelve off from their 

 inner side until they come near to a point at the 

 outer: the exterior of the inner rows are the 

 longest, corresponding at the termination of the 

 declivity of the outer, and become shorter and 

 shorter till they hardly rise above the gum. The 

 inner rows are closer than the outer, and rise al- 

 most perpendicularly from the gum, being longi- 

 tudinally strait, and have less of the declivity 

 than the outer. The plates of the outer row la- 

 terally are not quite flat, but make a serpentine 

 line, more especially in the Piked Whale : the outer 

 edge is thicker than the inner. All round the line 

 made by their outer edges, runs a small white 

 bead, which is formed along with the whalebone, 

 and wears down with it. The smaller plates are 

 nearly of an equal thickness upon both edges. 

 In all of them the termination is in a kind of hair, 

 as if the plate was split into innumerable small 

 parts, the exterior being the longest and strongest. 



The two sides of the mouth composed of these 

 rows meet nearly in a point at the tip of the jaw, 



