536 



APPENDIX. 



and spread or recede laterally from each other as 

 they pass back ; and at their posterior ends, in 

 the Piked Whale, they make a sweep inwards, and 

 come very near each other, just before the open- 

 ing of the oesophagus. In the Piked Whale there 

 were above three hundred in the outer rows on 

 each side of the mouth. Each layer terminates 

 in an oblique surface, which obliquity inclines to 

 the roof of the mouth, answering to the gradual 

 diminution of their length ; so that the whole sur- 

 face, composed of these terminations, forms one 

 plane, rising gradually from the roof of the 

 mouth : from this obliquity of the edge of the 

 outer row, we may in some measure judge of the 

 extent of the whole base, but not exactly, as it 

 makes a hollow curve, which increases the base. 

 The whole surface resembles the skin of an animal 

 covered with strong hair, vmder which surface the 

 tongue must immediately lie when the mouth is 

 shut : it is of a light-brown colour in the Piked 

 Whale, and of a darker colour in the large Whale. 

 In the Piked Whale, when the mouth is shut, the 

 projecting whalebone remains entirely on the in- 

 side of the lower jaw, the two jaws meeting every 

 where along their surface ; but how this is effected 

 in the large Whale I do not certainly know, the 

 horizontal plane made by the lower jaw being 

 strait, as in the Piked Whale ; but the upper jaw 

 being an arch cannot be hid by the lower. I sup- 

 pose therefore that a broad upper lip, meeting as 

 low as the lower jaw, covers the whole of the outer 

 edges of the exterior rows. The whalebone is 



