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pecially any one of the large species, some of which become nearly one hundred feet long. Whales are hunted chiefly for their oil and baleen, or whalebone.

A form of vessel, often with steam power, having sharp ends and a very convex upper deck, much used on the Great Lakes, esp. for carrying grain.

A long, narrow boat, sharp at both ends, used by whalemen.

A firm, elastic substance resembling horn, taken from the upper jaw of the right whale; baleen. It is used as a stiffening in stays, fans, screens, and for various other purposes. See Baleen.

A man employed in the whale fishery.

A vessel or person employed in the whale fishery.

The bowhead, Arctic, or Greenland whale (Balæna mysticetus), from whose mouth the best whalebone is obtained.

A very large toothed whale (Physeter macrocephalus), having a head of enormous size. The upper jaw is destitute of teeth. In the upper part of the head, above the skull, there is a large cavity, or case, filled with oil and spermaceti. This whale sometimes grows to the length of more than eighty feet. It is found in th…

other parts of the tropics, and also as a morbid secretion in the intestines of the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), which is believed to be in all cases its true origin. In color it is white, ash-gray, yellow, or black, and often variegated like marble. The floating masses are sometimes from sixty to two hundred…

A division of the Cetacea, including the right whale and all other whales having the mouth fringed with baleen. See Baleen.

Plates or blades of "whalebone," from two to twelve feet long, and sometimes a foot wide, which in certain whales (Balænoidea) are attached side by side along the upper jaw, and form a fringelike sieve by which the food is retained in the mouth.

Furnished with a process or a mouth like a beak; rostrate. Beaked whale (Zoöl.), a cetacean of the genus Hyperoodon; the bottlehead whale.

A round piece of timber at the bow or stern of a whaleboat, around which the harpoon lone is run out when the whale darts off.

A small kind of whale, of the genus Globicephalus, of several species. The most common is G. melas. Also sometimes applied to other whales of larger size.

A streak or layer of blubber in whales.

To spout water, etc., from the blowholes, as a whale.

The whale; -- so called by seamen, from the circumstance of its spouting up a column of water.

A nostril or spiracle in the top of the head of a whale or other cetacean.

The fat of whales and other large sea animals from which oil is obtained. It lies immediately under the skin and over the muscular flesh.

A kind of under waist stiffened with whalebone, etc., worn esp. by women; a corset; stays.