Volume 16, Plate VI / Mammalia (Mammals)

Skeleton of the Great Northern Rorqual

Rorqualis Borealis

The mightiest of the tribe, reaching a hundred to a hundred and ten feet, with a slender, side-compressed body, a small dorsal fin, short baleen, and long parallel folds running from lip along throat and belly. Pale bluish black or dark grey, it swims swiftly and boldly through Arctic seas near the ice edge, feeding on larger medusae and shoaling fish like herring, cod and salmon.