valueless, except to
make the front of a summer-house for our commander; and we then let our
prize go with its rich contents, and glad enough we were to get rid of
it.

The Greenland whale is less in size than the sperm--its length being
about 60 feet. The head occupies about a third of the entire length.
It is narrow above, and broad, flat, and rounded beneath, so as to allow
it to move rapidly under the water. The body is largest about the
middle, and tapers suddenly towards the tail. The general colour is a
blackish-grey, with part of the lower jaw, and throat, and belly white.
The lips are five or six feet high, the eyes very small, and the
external opening of the ears scarcely perceptible. The pectoral fins or
arms are not long, and are placed about two feet behind the angle of the
lips. The black whale has no teeth; but from the upper palate and jaw
there hang down perpendicularly numerous parallel laminae--the baleen,
or whale-bone, as it is called. [Footnote: The baleen or whale-bone I
have described forms a most valuable portion of the produce afforded by
the black whale, although not so valuable as the oil extracted from the
same animal.] These filaments fill up the whole of the cavity of the
mouth, and form a most complete strainer, so that only the most minute
animals can enter. This is necessary, as the swallow is too small to
admit even the smallest fish. When a black whale feeds, it throws up
millions of small animals at a time with its thick lower lip, into the
straining apparatus I have described; and as they are scarcely
perceptible to the naked eye, when its vast size is considered some
slight notion may be formed of the prodigious number it must consume at
meal.

There is another whale, found in the northern regions, called the
razor-backed whale, from a prominent ridge on its back. It is found 100
feet long. As it is constantly moving along at the rate of five miles
an hour, and is very powerful and active, frequently breaking away and
carrying lines and gear with it, only the most daring whalers, in
default of other prey, venture to attack it. There is a third sort of
whale, called the broad-nosed whale, which is in many respects like a
razor-back, but smaller--its length being from 50 to 80 feet.

The smallest sort is the beaked whale, which is about 25 feet long.
Great numbers of this whale are often caught in the deep bays and firths
of Shetland and Orkney.

I must now give an ac