48 
VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
By LinnaBus, the whale is called Bal^na, a name 
derived from a Greek word expressive of the great 
power it possesses to cast up water. It forms a 
genus of the class Mammalia, and order Cete ; and, 
although it is an inhabitant of the water, it is classed 
with the quadrupeds, which it resembles in suckling 
its young, in breathing air, and in having warm 
blood and flesh composed of animal substance, as 
well as in being also furnished with lungs, and with 
other parts of a similar structure to those of land 
animals. 
The Balcena Mysticdus, the Greenland whale, has 
no fin upon its back ; the head is one third the size 
of the fish; the lips are quite smooth, and very 
elastic, and the under one much broader than the 
upper, turning in this form ^ and ending before 
the fins ; the under side of the lower lip is beauti- 
fully white, and has small black spots, from each of 
which grows a single hair ; the eyes are placed 
just above the end of the upper lip, and in size do 
not exceed those of an ox ; they are very bright, 
and well calculated to see in the medium, through 
which the light has to pass : they consist of a crys- 
talline lens, not larger than a pea, and are guarded 
by lids and brows, like human eyes : the organs of 
hearing are placed behind the eyes : they are most 
minute circular orifices, without any projecting ex- 
ternal appendages, which might embarrass the animal 
in its natural element, each having an auditory canal 
about the size of a quill, leading to the seat of hear- 
ing ; but it does not possess that sense in an ex- 
