Page:Natural History (1848).djvu/125

Rh immense spoon: the mouth is opened at random, and whatever chances to be within the inclosed space is ingulfed. The upper jaw with its trans- verse plates of baleen, now acts as a strainer, and while the water is driven out through the narrow interstices, the particles of food are retained by the close-set plates, and then swallowed.

The structure and arrangement of the plates of baleen, are thus described by Mr. W. C. L. Martin. “The palate of the Whale is arched and oval, and forms a vaulted roof to which the plates of baleen are attached transversely, in two rows, parallel to each other. Each plate consists of a central, coarse, fibrous layer, lying between two, which are compact, and externally polished, constituting a sort of enamel or varnish; but which outer layers do not cover the internal or true baleen to its extreme free edge; the latter, therefore, extends beyond the former, and terminates in a fringe, in which are entangled the small molluscous animals, which constitute the food of this huge animal. Each plate of baleen is of a subtriangular figure, and its base, attached to the palate, has a long furrow, fixed upon a pulp, buried deeply in the firm vascular substance of the gum covering the under surface of the maxillary and intermaxillary bones. The outer layers, of compact matter, are continuous with a white horny layer of the gum, which passes on to the surface of each plate ; and the pulp is therefore the secreting organ of the internal layer of coarse elastic fibres. The number of plates composing each row is from three hundred to four hundred, and the palate being oval, the longest are those situated in the middle; those towards the muzzle