338 
A DESCRIPTION OF 
THE COMMON OR GREENLAND WHALE. 
(Balcena mysticetus.) 
THESE creatures have no teeth in either ja\v, but, instead, 
their mouths are furnished with a kind of fringe of nume- 
rous long horny laminae, which are what we call whale- 
bone, and which form a kind of strainer, to allow only 
the small fish to pass through on which the Whale feeds. 
This whalebone is one of the valuable products of the 
white Whale, though the oil is most important, and for 
tlie two a great- number of ships and men are sent on 
the Whale-fishery every year. 
As when enclosing harponeers assail. 
In hyperborean seas the slumbering Whale ; 
Soon as the javelins pierce the scaly side, 
He groans, he darts impetuous down the tide ; 
And, rack'd all o'er with lacerating pain, 
He flies remote beneath the flood in vain. 
FALCONER. 
