The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-06-16
THE GREENLAND WHALE.
Its Curious Mouth and Strange Manner q
Feeding Itself and Its Cubs.

Its Curious Mouth and Strange Manner OF
Feeding Itself and Its Cubs.
THE Greenland whale never has
teeth but once, and that Is when II is
born said a New Yorker who was
formerly a whaler. Those teeth are
milk teeth, and when the young whale
is weaned they do not fall out like a
baby's milk teeth, but disappear by alb
sorption in the jaw, and instead of be-
ing replaced by permanent teeth, plates
of baleen, or whalebone, are substituted
for them.
.'In the seas where the Greenland
whale resorts the great octopods that
form the food of the cochelot whale
cannot exist. and the only inha bitants
of those waters on which the whale
can feed are of very small size, the
largest OF them not exceeding an inch
in length. The cochelot whale would
starve TO death even in the midst of
the animalcule that swim in the Arctic
seas. for it's narrow lower jaw and great
teeth, set wide apart in it, would he
useless in the capture of such small
prey Great numbers of these marine
.midgets must necessarily be taken TO
nourish so enormous creature as the
Greenland whale, and consequently
the structure of the head must be
modified so far as concerns the portions
of it which are used in the procuring
of food The skull is exceedingly mar
row and elongated, and the cavity of
the mouth enormous. The two halves
of the lower jaw, instead of being
pressed closely against each other, as
in the whale that has teeth, are bowed
sharply outward. and the roof of the
mouth is arched like the interior OF "a
large dome. Thus the space necessary
TO take in an enormous quantity of the
little animals is provided, and 70 in
close the prey within it the curious
formation which is commonly known
as whalebonea IL brought into play.
This whale bone issues from the upper
jaw in a series of long, horny plates,
called blades or flakes By whsiers.
These fakes are short at the angle Of
the jaw and at the end of IL. and long
in the middle I have seen these cen
trail flakes twelve feet long, and whales
have been taken with flakes sixteen
feet long. more than a foot wide and
two inches thick on the back. These
fakes are shaped like the blade of
knife. growing thinner as they recede
from the jaw, the edge Of the blades
being turned inward, only their backs
being visible on the outside. This
whalebone is not bone at all, but, like
the horn of the rhinoceros, j. simply an
aggregation OF hair and Il Il be boiled
for some time and then pounded with
a nallct il will become regular tuft
OF bristles. In its natural state the
thin edge Of each fake, as well a. the
tip. IS naturally broken up into
its component hairs. 50 that X
forms bristly fringe around the
edges OF the mouth There are two
hundred and thirty II these blades OK
each side Of the upper JAZZ. and they
are 81 50 closely side ~ side that
visiting card could with diligently he
inserted between them. Thus the
enormous cavity Of the mouth i IN
closed within vast triangular case II
isaleea. the loose fbers 81 ihe Interior
forming a perfect hair sieve This
living sievc Is 81 such gigantic diHen-
SONS that whale boat fully manned
might D. rogved into i witaoat touch
irg the sides q the mouth.
People generally know baieen OFF,
in lis commercial state. and hare 80
idea what Il Is Ike IN is live o natural
state y Is then spft flexible aad
elastic, and entirely Unislss tie brittle
article seen IL the stores a p.ecs II