42
NOTES ON THE WHALE, RUDOLPHI'S RORQUAL,
representation of the species, reduced from a wood-cut in a French
periodical, is here given.
It was ultimately purchased by Mr. E. Gerrard, who, however, did
not see it before it had been cut up, and the blubber and a portion
of the baleen removed. The bones are now in process of macera-
tion, and Mr. Gerrard has given me the measurements of the skull,
which is 8 feet long and 3 feet 10 inches in width. He has also
kindly lent me for exhibition this evening a small portion of the
longest baleen, consisting of 15 blades or laminae, which occupy a
space of 5 inches. The greatest width at the base, or attachment to
the palate is 6 inches, and the blades are 18 inches long, or with the
bristly fringe about 20 inches long. The specimen exhibited being in
a moist state, the general arrangement of this curious structure may
be well seen—the vascular formation which is attached to the maxilla,
and from which the baleen derives its growth and nourishment—the
manner in which the blades are united at their bases, how they diverge,
and are then strongly held together and kept in position by a soft
epithelium (called "gum" by the whalers), which extends 13/8 inch down
each blade, and how a little further down the inner margins of the
smooth black blades become frayed and break up into bristly hairs of a
grayish colour, and are curled and matted together, forming an effective
sieve for the retention of the minutest portion of the animal's food.
This whale has been erroneously described as a young specimen
of the Greenland Right Whale (Balaena mysticetus), an animal which
has never been known to leave the Arctic waters ; but any one who
is at all familiar with the external character of the baleen whales
must at once recognize the genus to which it must necessarily be
ascribed. All the species of Balaenoptera are (as the name implies)
distinguished by a dorsal fin and by a series of plications on the
throat extending towards the belly, both of which characters are
entirely wanting in all species of Balaena. The body is also long and
narrow, with a sharp ridge along the dorsal line, the head being less
than a quarter of the whole length; the skull tapering towards the
lower jaw, and the baleen never exceeding two to three feet in the
largest species; whereas in the Balaenidae; the body of the animal
is short in comparison with its height and bulk, the head alone
occupying more than a third of its entire length. The huge skull
is greatly arched, and the pendant baleen in consequence is very
long, measuring sometimes over 12 feet. Mr. Hider's photograph
well portrays the characteristics I have described.