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Show 1868.] OF THE GREENLAND SEAS. 535 rupted jargon of Scotch, English, Danish, and Eskimo, joined with some words which seem to belong to no language at all, but to have originated in a misconception on either side, and to have retained their place under the notion that each party was speaking the other's language, something of the nature of the Lingua Franca of the Mediterranean, the Pigeon English oi China, and the Chinook jargon of North-west America. (ft) Descriptive Remarks.-The lower surface of the head is of a cream-colour, with about half a foot of blackish or ash-colour at the tip (or what corresponds in the higher orders of mammals to the symphysis) of the lower jaw ; further back the colour shades into the general dark blue colour of the body. This colour is generally almost black in adults, but in young ones (or "suckers") it is lightish blue; hence the whalers sometimes call these "blueskins." The whiskers consist of nine or ten short rows of bristles, the longest bristles anteriorly. There are also a few bristles on the apices of both jaws, and a lew hairs stretching all along the side of the head for a few feet backwards. On the tip of the nose are two or three rows of very short white hairs, with fewer hairs in the anterior rows, more in the posterior. I have reason to believe that some of these hairs are deciduous, as I have often found them wanting in old individuals. In older Whales the darker colour of the body impinges on the under surface of the head, leaving the ordinary white of the suckers merely in the form of several irregular blotches, but with two (regular?) spots, one on each side of the jaw immediately posterior to the eye, composed of a hard cartilaginous material. There is also a little white on the eyelids, and some irregular white markings on the root of the tail. There is likewise a white colour all around the vulva and mammae. Some individuals may be found quite white on the belly, others piebald, and others with white spots on various portions of the body not mentioned. The presence or absence of a particular white marking on a specimen of a Cetacean under examination ought by no means to be received (as has been done) as a proof that the species is different, or that because such is mentioned in a former description such description is erroneous, because this is one of the most varying characters possessed by the order*. The inside of the mouth inferiorly, where the tongue is not attached, is of a pale blue colour. The tongue is broader posteriorly, and narrowed anteriorly, paler blue than the rest of the mouth, and pale blue all round the edges and where not carnation, which colour prevails in the form of a streak down the mouth of a deep sulcus on the middle and anterior portion of the tongue, terminating irregularly about two feet from the root of the tongue. The contour of the tongue is entire throughout. The substance of the tongue is a fibrous blubber containing very little oil. There are numerous small linear muscles interspersed through the lower part. The roof of the mouth, on * The colour also varies with the age, the back of some being black, of others black and white, and some are all white. Some old Whales are said to have a broad white stripe over their back down to the belly (Laing's ' Voyage to Spitzbergen,' p. 126 : 1815). I cannot confirm this from m y own observation. |