VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
53 
gates only with those of its own kind, and does not 
mingle at all with the rest ; though they are gene- 
rally seen in shoals of different kinds together, and 
migrate in large companies from one ocean to another. 
The Mysticetus has no teeth, but merely laminae, or, 
what is known by the name of whale-bone, ranged in 
the upper jaw, in two rows, similar to those found 
in the bill of the duck: they occupy precisely the 
place of the teeth in other animals, are set with the 
greatest regularity, and vary in length and breadth, 
according to the size of the fish, being in a large fish, 
upwards of thirteen feet in length ; they are attached 
to the crown bone, and are placed in a longitudinal 
direction along the middle of the upper jaw : in 
number, they are upwards of two hundred on each 
side, and are fastened in a soft elastic white sub- 
stance, called the gum. The upper part of the jaw 
also resembles the upper mandible of a duck: it is 
smooth, and of a glossy black. The interior edge 
of the laminae is covered with hair, not unlike that 
of a horse : this, nature has provided for the purpose 
of preserving the tongue of the animal from injui'y, 
as well as to enable it the better to secure its prey, 
by preventing its return with the water ejected 
from its nostrils. When seeking food, the whale 
swims with considerable velocity beneath the sur- 
face of the water, with its capacious mouth ex- 
tended ; in the closed mouth the fringed parts of 
the laminae form a net, that will not allow the ani- 
malculae on which it feeds to escape. The tongue 
is an immense mass, covering the whole lower sur- 
