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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77840 ***
+
+
+
+
+ THE
+
+ SEALS AND WHALES
+
+ OF THE
+
+ BRITISH SEAS.
+
+ BY
+ THOMAS SOUTHWELL, F.Z.S.
+
+ _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS._
+
+ London:
+ JARROLD AND SONS, 3, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS.
+ [_All Rights Reserved._]
+ 1881.
+
+
+
+
+ INTRODUCTION.
+
+ SEALS AND WHALES OF THE BRITISH SEAS.
+
+
+Although at no period entirely neglected, as is apparent from the
+frequent reference to the subject by old authors, and from the known
+richness in species of the British Fauna, compared with that of the
+Continent of Europe, the study of the Marine Mammalia of the British
+Seas has, of late years, received more than usual attention, and the
+advance made in the knowledge of these creatures, has been rapid
+in proportion. Nor is it surprising that, to the inhabitants of a
+densely-peopled country like the British Isles, the terrestrial fauna
+of which must, of necessity, be very restricted and familiar, the study
+of the mammals frequenting its seas and shores should be possessed of a
+peculiar charm. The uncertainty and rarity of their occurrence, their
+exceptional forms, the mystery which shrouds their origin, heightened
+by the romance which surrounds the seas and high latitudes forming the
+chief home of so many species, must always render them objects of the
+greatest interest. Not only is this the case on the coast, but even in
+inland districts, whither--notably to London and Birmingham--Cetaceans
+have been brought, both living and dead, at great expense, and from
+long distances, to gratify the growing interest which has manifested
+itself, in these remarkable animals.
+
+Under these circumstances it is surprising that no modern book,
+especially devoted to this subject, exists; those who would inform
+themselves must search out the scattered records dispersed in the
+publications of numerous Scientific Societies, or procure works, which,
+excellent as they may be, are much more comprehensive in scope, and
+too expensive to be within the reach of many into whose hands it is
+hoped this little book may come: the author has, therefore, striven to
+supply what is certainly a desideratum, viz., a cheap, plain, but, he
+hopes, trustworthy treatise on the Marine Mammalia of the British Seas.
+Originally published in the form of a series of papers in the pages of
+_Science Gossip_, the following account of the “Seals and Whales found
+in the British Seas” has been brought down to the present time, and
+much new matter added, not the least important of which is that devoted
+to the claims of the Atlantic Right-Whale to a place in the British
+fauna.
+
+Doubtless, rare specimens are often lost to science for want of
+identification, and all those interested in their study have
+experienced the frequent disappointment which attends the bare
+announcement of “a Whale on shore:” in many instances no attempt is
+made to determine the species, in others it is evidently wrongly-named,
+or, although perhaps a more or less elaborate description may be given,
+not a single feature is indicated by which it may be identified.
+
+One special object in reproducing these pages is to assist, by means
+of the most accurate figures which could be obtained, and short
+descriptions of the more important characters to be observed in each
+species, in determining those specimens which, from time to time, are
+landed by our fishermen, or cast dead upon the shore. Elaborate or
+technical descriptions have been carefully avoided, but short accounts
+of the habits and distribution, so far as known, of each species have
+been given, with the hope of interesting others in the study of this,
+even now, too-much-neglected branch of Natural History.
+
+To the more advanced student the numerous references may be useful for
+indicating the sources whence detailed information of a more technical
+character is to be obtained.
+
+The usefulness of this little manual, which pretends to no originality,
+but in the compilation of which no labour has been spared to insure
+accuracy, will, it is hoped, be greatly enhanced by the Illustrations;
+they were either engraved from original drawings, or copied from the
+most trustworthy sources (indicated in the text); several of them have
+since been adopted by the latest publications on the subject, both in
+England and America. For the use of 20 of the illustrations, out of a
+total of 29, the author is indebted to the kindness of Mr. David Bogue,
+who obligingly lent the blocks originally engraved for the papers in
+_Science Gossip_.
+
+The author has to acknowledge, with many thanks, the kind assistance
+afforded him by MR. J. W. CLARK, Superintendent of the Museum of the
+University of Cambridge, and a recognized authority on the _Cetacea_
+and _Pinnipedia_. He, also, has to record the services, in behalf of
+this little work, rendered by one, who, beloved and lamented by many
+friends, has passed away since it has been in the press--the late MR.
+EDWARD RICHARD ALSTON. The wound inflicted by the early death of that
+amiable and promising naturalist is too fresh to admit of further
+reference.
+
+ _Norwich, March 1881._
+
+
+
+
+ INDEX.
+
+
+ PAGE.
+
+ Atlantic Right-Whale, 61
+
+
+ _Balæna biscayensis_, 61
+
+ ” _mysticetus_, 49
+
+ _Balænoptera boops_, 70
+
+ ” _borealis_ (Note), 128
+
+ ” _laticeps_, 77
+
+ ” _musculus_, 70
+
+ ” _rostrata_, 78
+
+ ” _sibbaldii_, 75
+
+ Beaked Whale, 101
+
+ Beluga ”, 108
+
+ Bottle-head ”, 101
+
+ Bottle-nose Dolphin, 124
+
+ Broad-fronted Beaked Whale, 101
+
+
+ Cachelot, 85
+
+ Cetacea, 44
+
+ Cuvier’s Whale, 102
+
+ _Cystophora cristata_, 24
+
+
+ _Delphinapterus leucas_, 108
+
+ _Delphinus acutus_, 125
+
+ ” _albirostris_, 125
+
+ ” _deductor_, 118
+
+ ” _delphis_, 121
+
+ ” _globiceps_, 118
+
+ ” _melas_, 118
+
+ ” _phocœna_, 120
+
+ ” _tursio_, 124
+
+ Dolphin, Bottle-nosed, 124
+
+ ” Common, 121
+
+ ” Risso’s, 115
+
+ ” White-beaked, 125
+
+ ” White-sided, 125
+
+
+ _Epiodon desmarestii_, 102
+
+
+ _Globicephalus melas_, 118
+
+ Grampus, Common, 113
+
+ ” Risso’s, 115
+
+ _Grampus cuvieri_, 115
+
+ ” _griseus_, 115
+
+ Greenland Right-Whale, 49
+
+
+ _Halichœrus gryphus_, 28
+
+ Hump-backed Whale, 69
+
+ _Hyperoodon butzkopf_, 101
+
+ ” _latifrons_, 101
+
+ ” _rostratum_, 101
+
+
+ _Lagenorhynchus acutus_, 125
+
+ ” _albirostris_, 125
+
+
+ _Megaptera longimana_, 69
+
+ _Mesoplodon sowerbiensis_, 105
+
+ _Monodon monoceros_, 106
+
+ Mystacoceti, 49
+
+
+ Narwhal, 106
+
+
+ Odontoceti, 85
+
+ _Orca gladiator_, 113
+
+
+ _Phoca baikalensis_, 17
+
+ ” _discolor_, 17
+
+ ” _grœnlandica_, 21
+
+ ” _hispida_, 14
+
+ ” _vitulina_, 11
+
+ _Phocœna communis_, 120
+
+ _Physalus antiquorum_, 70
+
+ ” _latirostris_, 75
+
+ _Physeter macrocephalus_, 85
+
+ Pilot Whale, 118
+
+ Pinnipedia, 2
+
+ Porpoise, 120
+
+ _Pseudorca crassidens_, 114
+
+
+ Risso’s Grampus, 115
+
+ Rorqual, Common, 70
+
+ ” Lesser, 78
+
+ ” Rudolphi’s, 77
+
+ ” ” (Note), 128
+
+ ” Sibbald’s, 75
+
+ _Rorqualus minor_, 78
+
+
+ Seal, Common, 11
+
+ ” Greenland, 21
+
+ ” Grey, 28
+
+ ” Hooded, or Bladder-nosed, 24
+
+ ” Ringed, or Marbled, 14
+
+ _Sibbaldius borealis_, 75
+
+ Sowerby’s Whale, 105
+
+ Sperm Whale, 85
+
+
+ _Trichechus rosmarus_, 32
+
+ _Tursio truncatus_, 124
+
+
+ Walrus, 32
+
+ Whale, Atlantic Right, 61
+
+ ” Beaked, 101
+
+ ” Bottle-head, 101
+
+ ” Broad-fronted, 101
+
+ ” Cuvier’s, 102
+
+ ” Greenland Right, 49
+
+ ” Humpbacked, 69
+
+ ” Pilot, 118
+
+ ” Sowerby’s, 105
+
+ ” Sperm, 85
+
+ ” White, 108
+
+ White-sided Dolphin, 125
+
+ White-beaked Dolphin, 125
+
+
+ Ziphioid Whales, 98
+
+ _Ziphius cavirostris_, 102
+
+
+
+
+ ERRATA.
+
+
+ Page 77, bottom line, for _Physalis_ read _Physalus_.
+ ” 126, for _alberostris_ read _albirostris_.
+
+
+
+
+ LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+ PAGE.
+
+ _Figure_ 1.--HIND FLIPPERS OF RINGED SEAL 2
+
+ ” 2.--SKELETON OF SEAL 12
+
+ ” 3.--RINGED OR MARBLED SEAL 15
+
+ ” 4.--GREENLAND SEAL 20
+
+ ” 5.--HOODED SEAL 25
+
+ ” 6.--GREY SEAL 29
+
+ ” 7.--WALRUS 33
+
+ ” 8.--_Vacca Marina_ 37
+
+ ” 9.--HEAD OF WALRUS 39
+
+ ” 10.--SEA HORSE (after Cook) 41
+
+ ” 11.--SECTION OF SKULL OF WHALEBONE WHALE 46
+
+ ” 12.--GREENLAND RIGHT-WHALE 51
+
+ ” 13.--ATLANTIC RIGHT-WHALE 60
+
+ ” 14.--COMMON RORQUAL 71
+
+ ” 15.--LESSER RORQUAL 80
+
+ ” 16.--SPERM WHALE 84
+
+ ” 17.--CHAIR IN GREAT YARMOUTH CHURCH 87
+
+ ” 18.--BACK VIEW OF DITTO, DITTO 87
+
+ ” 19.--SKELETON OF SPERM WHALE 88
+
+ ” 20.--SKULL OF DITTO 90
+
+ ” 21.--HEAD OF SOWERBY’S WHALE 104
+
+ ” 22.--BELUGA, CAUGHT BY THE TAIL 109
+
+ ” 23.--GRAMPUS 112
+
+ ” 24.--_Pseudorca crassidens_ 114
+
+ ” 25.--RISSO’S DOLPHIN 116
+
+ ” 26.--PILOT WHALE 118
+
+ ” 27.--COMMON DOLPHIN 122
+
+ ” 28.--BOTTLE-NOSED DOLPHIN 124
+
+ ” 29.--WHITE-BEAKED DOLPHIN 126
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ TABLE OF BRITISH CETACEA 48
+
+ ” DIFFERENCES OF BRITISH MYSTACOCETI 82
+
+
+
+
+ SEALS AND WHALES
+
+ OF THE
+
+ BRITISH SEAS.
+
+The two great groups of Marine Mammals known as _Pinnipedia_ and
+_Cetacea_, although widely separated from each other zoologically,
+naturally present themselves to us side by side as inhabiting the
+same regions; the facilities for studying the one are also equally
+favourable for obtaining a knowledge of the other. It is remarkable
+that in few groups of the animal world, until recently, has so much
+confusion existed as in the Seals and Whales. This has, of late years,
+through the labours of European and American naturalists, to some
+extent been remedied, although very much still remains to be done, the
+literature of the subject being still so scattered, that much of it is
+inaccessible to the ordinary student. The arrangement and nomenclature
+adopted in the following short account of the Seals and Whales
+inhabiting or occurring in the seas, or on the shores, surrounding the
+British Islands, is that used by Mr. Alston in the second edition of
+Bell’s ‘British Quadrupeds.’
+
+
+PINNIPEDIA.
+
+The _Pinnipedia_ (fin-footed) forms a well-marked sub-order of the
+Carnivora, and may be divided into three distinct families--the
+_Phocidæ_, or true Seals; the _Trichechidæ_, represented by one species
+only--the Walrus; and the _Otariidæ_, or Eared Seals.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 1. HIND FLIPPERS OF RINGED SEAL (_after Murie_).
+
+=A=, opened out; =B=, closed.]
+
+The _Phocidæ_ are found both in the Northern and Southern hemispheres,
+most plentifully in the cold regions, but extending into the temperate
+seas; in the Northern hemisphere they are found as far south as 40° N.
+latitude; two species, however, are said to be sub-tropical. The true
+Seals may readily be distinguished by the absence of external ears,
+and the position of the posterior limbs, which are not adapted for
+progression on land, but admirably suited for propelling the animal
+through the element in which it obtains its sustenance. These limbs are
+directed backwards, and compressed laterally, the soles of the flippers
+being turned inwards, and are only free from the ankle-joints. (Fig.
+1). Like the whole group, the Seals are carnivorous. Five species are
+believed to have occurred on our shores.
+
+The family of _Trichechidæ_ is limited to one genus, and that
+consisting of only one species, the Walrus or Morse, which is
+essentially Arctic in its habitat, and on our coasts can only be
+regarded as a very rare and accidental straggler; in this animal there
+is no external ear; its limbs are adapted for raising the body from the
+ground, thus enabling it to progress by their means upon dry land.
+
+The third family, _Otariidæ_, consists of several genera and species
+(according to Gray); they are distinguished from both _Phocidæ_ and
+_Trichechus_ by the presence of external ear-conchs, and from the
+former by the structure of their limbs, which are free and adapted for
+progression upon land, where at a certain season they take up their
+abode for a considerable period. Dr. Pettigrew also points out that the
+fore-feet are hardly used by the true Seals as means of propulsion in
+the water, whereas in the Eared Seals they form the chief organs used
+for that purpose, and in the Walrus all four limbs are employed. The
+Eared Seals inhabit the lonely shores and islands of the Pacific Ocean
+and South Seas, where they are hunted for their skins; the beautiful
+“seal-skin” of commerce, so much prized for its lustre and softness,
+being the dyed and prepared under-fur of some members of this family.
+The _Otariidæ_ are not represented in our fauna.
+
+The true Seals spend most of their time in the water, but visit the
+shore or ice to bask in the sun or bring forth their young; this last
+takes place early in the summer, and it is seldom that more than one is
+produced at a birth. Some species enter the water almost immediately
+after birth, but others are two or three weeks before they leave the
+ice, quitting it at first very unwillingly, but soon becoming expert
+at swimming and diving. The power of the Seal to remain beneath the
+water for lengthened periods Dr. Wallace[1] believes to be acquired
+rather than structural. Their food consists of crustacea and fish, with
+an occasional sea-bird. Some species are migratory in their habits.
+In disposition they are usually timid and gentle, and capable of
+attachment, when in confinement, to those who feed and attend them. The
+Bladder-nose and Grey Seals, however, appear to be exceptions to this
+rule; the former is said to be fierce and vindictive, rather courting
+than fleeing from danger, and altogether a formidable opponent. Their
+great affection for their young is made use of by the sealers for their
+destruction.
+
+Although Seals are not found in sufficient numbers round our own
+coast to be of any commercial value, in the Northern Seas, where they
+congregate in vast numbers at the breeding season, the seal-fishery is
+of great importance as a branch of industry, and finds employment for
+a large number of vessels and men, both from this country and from the
+ports of Northern Europe. In the Greenland seal-fishery the Norwegian
+whalers had in 1874 sixteen steamers and nineteen sailing-ships, with
+an aggregate tonnage of 9,000 tons, manned by 1,600 sailors, and in the
+three years ending 1874 they killed 142,500 young Seals and 128,000 old
+ones, notwithstanding which the balance-sheet of the three years showed
+only a small profit on the steamers and a large loss on the sailing
+vessels.[2] An official return issued by Messrs. David Bruce and Co.,
+of Dundee, shows that in the season of 1879, eleven Dundee ships and
+five from Peterhead, were engaged in the Greenland seal-trade; the
+total catch of these sixteen ships was 35,044 Seals; four ships from
+Dundee visited Newfoundland and captured 70,355 Seals, making a total
+for the British ships alone of 105,399 Seals, exclusive of those
+wounded and lost, or otherwise destroyed. These produced 1280 tons of
+oil, worth about £25 per ton, or £32,000, exclusive of skins, which
+sell for about 5s. each. The majority of the Norwegian vessels also
+bring their cargoes to this country. Captain David Gray informs me that
+the seal-fishery was commenced from the Port of Peterhead, in the year
+1819, since which time to the close of the season of 1879, the large
+number of 1,673,052 Seals have been taken by the vessels belonging to
+that port. The Dundee vessels did not take part in the seal-fishery
+till the year 1860, but have from that time to 1879 taken 917,278
+Seals. This total is greatly swollen by the results of the Newfoundland
+fishery; four Dundee vessels in 1879 took 70,355 Seals in Newfoundland,
+whereas, in the same season, eleven Dundee and five Peterhead vessels
+took only 35,044 Seals in the Greenland fishery. The Dundee ships,
+after the Newfoundland fishery is ended, generally land their oil and
+skins at St. John’s, and proceed on their whaling voyage to Greenland
+and Davis’ Straits.
+
+Dr. Wallace[3] estimates the annual produce of the Greenland
+Seal-fishery alone at the sum of £116,000; the bulk of the seals taken
+are the Harp Seal (_Phoca grœnlandica_).
+
+Several attempts had been made to establish a seal-fishery at
+Newfoundland, from the port of Dundee, but with small success till
+the year 1876: in that year Messrs. Alexander Stephen and Son secured
+premises at St. John’s, and sent out two vessels to be manned chiefly
+by a Newfoundland crew; the result was a great success, and this firm
+has since prosecuted the fishing with very satisfactory results. The
+Dundee Seal and Whale Fishing Company have also three steamers in
+the trade, in addition to those engaged at the Greenland fishery.
+Mr. David Bruce, of Dundee, to whom I am indebted for the above
+particulars, informs me that the season of 1880 was a failure in the
+Newfoundland fishery, and that out of a fleet of twenty-four steamers,
+not more than six of them would pay their expenses.
+
+Mr. J. A. Allen[4] gives an interesting account of the rise and
+progress of the Newfoundland fishery, which he characterises as “the
+sealing-ground, _par excellence_, of the world, twice as many Seals
+being taken here by the Newfoundland fleet alone as by the combined
+sealing-fleets of Great Britain, Germany, and Norway, in the icy seas
+about Jan Mayen, or the so-called ‘Greenland Sea’ of the whalemen and
+sealers.” So early as 1721, thousands of “sea-wolves” were killed
+in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but, according to Mr. Michael Carroll,
+of Bonavista, Newfoundland, in his account of the ‘Seal and Herring
+Fisheries of Newfoundland,’ published in 1873, as quoted by Mr. Allen,
+it was not till the year 1763 that the seal-fishery was regularly
+prosecuted there by vessels specially equipped for the purpose. The
+trade, however, rapidly assumed importance, and in 1807 thirty vessels
+from Newfoundland alone were engaged in it. In 1834 the Newfoundland
+fleet had increased to three hundred and seventy-five, besides a
+considerable number of vessels from Nova Scotia and the Magdalen
+Islands; in 1857 the number of vessels employed appears to have reached
+its maximum, exceeding three hundred and seventy, whilst the catch of
+Seals was estimated at 500,000. About the year 1866, steamships were
+first introduced, and have ever since been increasingly employed; the
+result has been a steady decrease in the number of vessels, which,
+in 1871, were reduced to one hundred and forty-six sailing vessels
+and fifteen steamers, or less than one-half, but the number of Seals
+taken annually, up to 1873, appears to have remained about the same,
+and, notwithstanding the enormous destruction of these creatures,
+which takes place every season on the Newfoundland sealing grounds,
+many thousands of which, from the wasteful methods employed in their
+capture, are never accounted for, Mr. Carroll is still of opinion that
+up to the year 1873, their numbers were actually on the increase: this
+can hardly continue much longer to be the case.
+
+I will only mention one of the methods employed by the Newfoundland
+sealers, which must eventually be attended with the most disastrous
+effects. This mode is technically called “panning.” Mr. Carroll,
+writing in 1871 says, “No greater injury can possibly be done to the
+seal-fishery than that of bulking Seals on pans of ice by crews of
+ice-hunters. Thousands of Seals are killed and bulked, and never seen
+afterwards. When the men come up with a large number of old and young
+Seals, that cannot get into the water, owing to the ice being in one
+solid jam, they drive them together, selecting a pan surrounded with
+rafted ice, on which thousands of Seals are placed one over the other,
+perhaps fifteen feet deep. A certain number of men is picked out by the
+ship-master to pelt and put on board the bulked Seals, whilst other
+men are sent to kill more. It often happens that the men are obliged
+to go from one to ten miles, before they come up with the Seals again,
+and very often the men pile from five hundred to two thousand in each
+bulk, which bulks are from one to two miles apart; care is also taken
+that flags are stuck up as a guide to direct the men where to find such
+bulked Seals. So uncertain is the weather, and precarious the shifting
+about of the ice, as well as heavy falls of snow and drift, that very
+often such bulked Seals are never seen again by the men that killed
+and bulked them, as the vessels and steamships are frequently driven
+by gales of wind far out of sight or reach of them, and frequently
+wheeled or driven into another spot, when the men again commence
+killing and bulking as before. In many instances it has happened that
+the crews of vessels, as well as the crews of steamships, have killed
+and bulked twice their load. No doubt Seals that are bulked are
+often picked up by the crews of other vessels, but such is the law,
+that as long as the flags are erected upon the bulks, and the vessel
+or steamship is in sight, no man can take them, notwithstanding the
+vessel’s or steamship’s men that bulked them may be ten miles away from
+them, whilst another vessel may be driven within a quarter of a mile
+of thousands of bulked Seals, but, owing to the law, dare not take
+them.” The skins, if left, are also liable to injury by the frost or
+sun, or by the capsizing of the pan they may be totally lost. In the
+spring of 1872, some five thousand Seals, obtained to the westward of
+Bonavista, by the inhabitants of that place, were heaped upon the ice.
+“There were thirteen flags to be seen in the morning over bulked Seals,
+and when the drift ice struck the land in the evening, only six of the
+flags were visible, the ice having rafted over both flags and Seals.
+Some days after, when the ice moved off from the shore, several bulks
+of Seals were found, but in such a putrid state that they could not be
+handled.”[5] Comment upon the consequences which must speedily result
+from such lamentable waste of life is needless.
+
+Nor, until very recently, was the seal-fishery in the Greenland Seas
+prosecuted with any greater regard to humanity or economy. “Supposing
+the sealing prosecuted with the same vigour as at present,” says Dr.
+Brown, “I have little hesitation in stating that before thirty years
+shall have passed away, the seal-fishery, as a source of commercial
+revenue, will have come to a close, and the progeny of the immense
+number of Seals now swimming about in Greenland waters will number
+but comparatively few.” Dr. Brown’s remarks were written in the year
+1868, and the prediction is already virtually fulfilled: a report,
+giving an account of the success of the Dundee vessels employed in
+the Newfoundland seal-fishery in 1877, after stating that 39,000
+Seals were said to have been captured by two vessels, concludes
+thus:--“Previously all Dundee vessels were employed at the _Greenland_
+seal-fishing, but Captain Adams has for some years been of opinion
+that _that ground is practically used up_, and hence his visit to
+Newfoundland.”
+
+I will spare the reader, as much as possible, a repetition of the
+horrors of this cruel trade, and make only a single quotation from a
+letter written by an old and experienced sealer, Captain David Gray, of
+the steamship _Eclipse_. He says that five ships in 1873 shot among the
+old Seals for four days until the pack was utterly ruined. “I suppose,”
+he continues, “about 10,000 old Seals had been taken. Add 20 per cent.
+for Seals mortally wounded and lost, gives an aggregate of 12,000 old
+ones; add 12,000 young ones which died of starvation (their parents
+being killed before the young ones were of any value or able to shift
+for themselves), gives 24,000 ... The whole of the young brood was
+destroyed, and had these Seals been left alone for eight or ten days,
+I am quite within the mark when I say that, instead of only taking 300
+tons of oil out of them, 1,500 could as easily have been got, and that
+without touching an old one.”[6] So great are the cruelties perpetrated
+by the crews of the sealers, that even the men themselves, hardened as
+they are, sicken at the work, and cry shame that the law does not put
+a stop to them. Let anybody who cares to know what fearful cruelties
+man is capable of perpetrating for gain, read Captain Gray’s letter.
+As a remedy for this waste of life (of course its cruelties can only
+be modified) Captain Gray suggested that the ships should be kept from
+sailing before the 25th of March, about a month later than they then
+started; they would then not reach the fishery and find the young
+Seals until they were sufficiently grown to be worth killing, and the
+frightful waste of life which occurred from the destruction of the
+old Seals before the young ones were able to shift for themselves,
+resulting in the death from starvation of the whole brood, thus be put
+a stop to.
+
+With this object in view, an Act was passed in 1875, in which the
+Foreign States interested concurred, prohibiting the killing of the
+Seals before the 3rd of April in each year; from some misunderstanding
+this Act was not enforced in the season of 1876, but in 1877 it was
+rigidly observed by the ships of all nations engaged in the fishery.
+The result of the season’s fishing was very unsatisfactory, owing to
+the absence of the large bodies of Seals which formerly were met with.
+Captain Gray, after three years’ experience of the operation of this
+Act, considers that the fishing still opens too early,[7] and that an
+additional three days are necessary to enable the young Seals to arrive
+at their best, and prevent the useless slaughter of the old ones, which
+are getting thin from being suckled. He is of opinion that, since the
+introduction of the close time, the Greenland Seals are not diminishing
+quite so rapidly as they were, but that the restriction has not been in
+operation long enough to form a very accurate opinion.
+
+The Walrus is even more rapidly and surely becoming exterminated than
+the Seal; it has become extinct from station after station, and but
+for its ice-loving habits, which render its present strongholds always
+difficult and sometimes impossible of access, it would now probably,
+like Steller’s Rhytina, have to be spoken of in the past tense.
+
+
+THE COMMON SEAL.
+
+This species, _Phoca vitulina_, of Linnæus, is, _par excellence_, the
+COMMON SEAL of the British waters. It is found, although in greatly
+reduced numbers, on unfrequented shores and sands, from the Orkney and
+Shetland Islands, where it most abounds, to Cornwall, occasionally
+ascending estuaries and rivers for a considerable distance, but never
+quitting the immediate vicinity of the water. According to Bell, it
+occurs on both sides the North Atlantic, and is common in Spitzbergen,
+Greenland, and Davis’s Straits; also Northern Russia, Scandinavia,
+Holland, and France, and is said to occur occasionally in the
+Mediterranean.[8] It figures largely in the returns of the Danish and
+Greenland fishery, where the number killed annually of this species and
+_Ph. hispida_ is estimated by Dr. Brown at about 70,000.
+
+Low, who died in 1795, says in the ‘Fauna Oncadensis,’ “A ship commonly
+goes from this place once a-year to Soliskerry, and seldom returns
+without 200 or 300 Seals;” these they killed by landing on the rock,
+and knocking them on the head. He also says that in North Ronaldsha
+they take them for the purpose of eating, and that the inhabitants
+say “they make good ham.” Though at present far less numerous than
+formerly, it is still abundant in the unfrequented bays and sounds
+of the Orkney and Shetland Islands; also, on the Hebrides. On the
+mainland, Mr. Alston (‘Fauna of Scot.’ _Proc. Glasgow Nat. Hist. Soc._)
+says it is found in all localities where it is free from intrusion,
+especially on the North and West shores; it is also common on some
+parts of the Irish Coast. In Wales it is not uncommon, and on the
+Cornish, and some few other favoured localities of the English coast
+it is still well known; on other parts of our shores it is decidedly
+rare. In the great estuary between the Norfolk and Lincolnshire coasts,
+called the “Wash,” this species frequents the sand-banks left dry at
+low water, and, doubtless, many young ones are produced there annually.
+At birth, which takes place about the month of June, the young Seal is
+covered with a coat of white woolly hair, which is shed in parturition,
+or shortly after, and the young one takes to the water when only a
+few hours old. Mr. Bartlett gives an account of the birth of a young
+one (at the time believed to be _Ph. hispida_) in the Zoological
+Gardens,[9] and states that it completely divested itself of its coat
+of fur and hair in a few minutes, and was swimming and diving about
+within three hours of its birth; its mother turned on her side to let
+it suck, and its voice was a low, soft “ba.” The first coat is not shed
+so quickly in some species, nor do they all take to the water at so
+early an age; as, for example, _Ph. grœnlandica_, which is two or three
+weeks before it leaves the ice.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 2. SKELETON OF SEAL.]
+
+The total length of the adult is about 4 to 5 feet, and its coat is
+generally of a yellowish colour, thickly spotted with black on the back
+and upper parts, but less distinctly so on the sides. The under parts
+are a bright silvery hue; there is, however, considerable variety in
+colour and in the distinctness of the spots. This species is readily
+domesticated, and displays great intelligence, and even affection for
+those who feed and tend it. Almost everybody must have been struck with
+the docility displayed by the Seals which are occasionally exhibited
+as “talking fish.” At the Zoological Gardens and at the Brighton and
+other Aquaria, where they are a never-failing source of attraction,
+their graceful movements in their confined homes cannot fail to excite
+admiration. Swimming silently and swiftly along, the animal threads
+with the greatest accuracy the intricacies of its narrow pond, assuming
+every possible attitude, and turning over and over in its course,
+as much at ease when swimming on its back as in its usual position.
+When, tired with this exercise, it comes to the edge of its pond and
+raises itself out of the water, its rounded head, and bright, full
+black eyes have something almost human in their expression, and the
+fabled “mermaid” seems a reality; but when once it leaves the water,
+it is clearly seen that it is no longer in the element in which it is
+destined to live and move, for its motions are laboured and awkward
+in the extreme. It throws itself along, first on one side and then
+on the other, just as a man tightly sewn in a sack would do, but,
+notwithstanding its clumsiness, contrives to make considerable progress.
+
+This species may be distinguished by the arrangement of its molar
+teeth, which are placed obliquely along either side of the jaw, not
+in a line with each other. It has been said that this is only a
+characteristic of youth, and that the peculiar arrangement disappears
+“before the skull attains its maximum size.” In the second edition of
+Bell’s ‘Quadrupeds,’ however, the authors express their belief that
+“it will be found a characteristic of all ages, although certainly
+more marked in the young than in very old animals.” Dr. Brown says
+that the Greenland Seal (_Ph. grœnlandica_) in its second coat has
+often been mistaken for this species, but that the former may readily
+be distinguished by its having the second toe of the fore flipper the
+longest. The hair next the skin is short and woolly, but externally
+harsh and shining, admirably adapted for repelling the water in
+which the animal passes so much of its time; the whiskers with which
+the upper lip is furnished, are thick, flattened hairs, laterally
+compressed, presenting diamond-shaped inequalities: this form of
+bristle is found in all the British Seals, whereas _Phoca barbata_, a
+species shortly to be mentioned as of doubtful occurrence on our coast,
+has the bristles compressed, but smooth. The food of the Common Seal
+consists of fish and crustacea.
+
+
+THE RINGED, OR MARBLED SEAL.
+
+The only recorded instance of the occurrence of the RINGED SEAL, _Phoca
+hispida_, of Schreber, on the British coast, is that of an individual
+captured on the Norfolk coast, in June, 1846, and purchased by Mr.
+J. H. Gurney, in the flesh, in the Norwich fish-market, the skull of
+which is now in the Museum of that city. Although no other instance
+of its occurrence is on record, it seems not improbable that it may
+occasionally be met with, and pass unrecognized. In the first volume
+of the ‘Magazine of Zoology and Botany,’ Mr. Wilson, in a paper on the
+Scottish Seals, speaks of a small Seal which was sometimes seen in the
+Hebrides, and believed by the natives to be a distinct species: this
+was rendered probable by their not associating with the Common Seals,
+and not being so wild in their nature. It is thought that this small
+Seal may have been _Ph. hispida_. Small dark-coloured Seals have more
+than once been seen on the Norfolk and Lincolnshire coast, or exhibited
+in the towns, which it is quite possible also may have belonged to this
+species. That it inhabited the coast of Scotland in the past, there is
+evidence in the abundance of the remains of this species found in the
+glacial clays of that country, as identified by Professor Turner.[10]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 3. RINGED SEAL (_Phoca hispida_).]
+
+The small Seal found in the inland fresh-waters of Lake Baikal is
+believed to be a variety of this species, differing only in its darker
+colour; it has, however, been separated, under the name of _Ph.
+baikalensis_ by M. Dybowski (_Arch. f. Anat. u. Phys._, 1873, p. 109).
+The type of _Ph. discolor_, F. Cuv., was taken in the Channel, and,
+according to De Sélys-Longchamps, this species has also occurred on the
+Belgian coast.
+
+At present its home is the high latitudes of the Arctic seas,
+especially parallels 76 and 77 deg. North, and many are killed in
+South Greenland. In Davis’s Straits it is found all the year round,
+particularly up the ice-fjords; in Cumberland Gulf it is said to
+be by far the most common Seal, and forms the principal food of
+the Esquimaux. This was the only species found by the late Arctic
+expedition north of Cape Union, 82° 15′ N. lat. Captain Feilden, the
+Naturalist to Sir G. Nares’ Arctic Expedition, in an account of the
+‘Mammalia of North Greenland and Grinnell Land’ (_Zoologist_, 1877,
+p. 359), thus speaks of this species:--“The Ringed Seal was met with
+in most of the bays we entered during our passage up and down Smith
+Sound. It was the only species seen north of Cape Union, and which
+penetrates into the Polar Sea. Lieutenant Aldrich, R.N., during his
+autumn sledging, in 1875, noticed a single example in a pool of water
+near Cape Joseph Henry, and a party which I accompanied in September,
+1875, secured one in Dumbell Harbour, some miles north of the winter
+quarters of the “Alert”: its stomach contained remains of crustaceans
+and annelids. In June of the following year I observed three or four
+of these animals on the ice of Dumbell Harbour. They had made holes in
+the bay ice that had formed in this protected inlet. The polar pack was
+at this time of the year firmly wedged against the shores of Grinnell
+Land, and so tightly packed in Robeson Channel that no Seal could by
+any possibility have worked its way into this inlet from outside. I am,
+therefore, quite satisfied that _Phoca hispida_ is resident throughout
+the year in the localities mentioned. A female killed on the 23rd
+August, 1876, weighed 65 lbs.” This species has, therefore, probably
+the most northerly habitat of any existing mammal.
+
+Dr. Brown, in his paper on the ‘Greenland Seals’ (_Proc. Zool. Soc._,
+June, 1868,) gives an interesting account of this species, which,
+like the preceding, is littoral in its habits, seldom frequenting
+the open sea, but found generally in the neighbourhood of the coast
+ice, in retired situations. It is known by the whalers as the “Floe
+rat,” and its food consists of various species of crustacea and small
+fishes. This is the smallest of the Northern Seals, and of very little
+commercial value: its flesh, however, is eaten, and its skin forms the
+chief material of clothing in Greenland.
+
+In appearance, this species is very like the Common Seal; but it is
+darker in colour, more particularly on the back, and the spots in the
+adult are surrounded by oval-shaped whitish rings; the young ones are
+lighter in colour. The old male is said to emit a most disgusting
+smell: hence one of its specific names, “fœtida.” Dr. Rink says that
+this unpleasant odour is more developed in those which are captured
+in the interior ice-fjords, “which are also, on an average perhaps,
+twice as large as those generally occurring off the outer shores.
+When brought into the hut, and cut up on its floor, such a Seal emits
+a smell resembling something between that of assafœtida and onions,
+almost insupportable to strangers. This peculiarity is not noticeable
+in the younger specimens, or those of a smaller size, such as are
+generally caught, and at all events the smell does not detract from the
+utility of the flesh over the whole of Greenland.”[11]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 4. GREENLAND SEAL (_Phoca grœnlandica_).
+
+Adult and Immature.]
+
+The molar teeth in this species are arranged in a straight line along
+the jaws, and not obliquely, as in the common species. As this Seal is
+very likely to pass unnoticed, should it occur on our coast, it will
+be well to bear in mind that this arrangement of the molars will at
+once distinguish it from _Ph. vitulina_, the only species with which
+it is likely to be confounded. Professor Flower has given a minute
+description of the skull of the Norfolk specimen in the ‘_Proc. Zool.
+Soc._’ for 1871, pp. 506-12. The figure of this species is copied from
+Karl Thorin’s ‘Grundlinier Zoologiens Studium,’ p. 53 (Stockholm, 1868).
+
+
+THE GREENLAND SEAL.
+
+The claims of the GREENLAND SEAL, _Phoca grœnlandica_ (Fab.), to a
+place in the British Fauna, although long considered highly probable,
+were not rendered perfectly conclusive until 1874, when they were
+satisfactorily established by Professor Turner’s identification of a
+Seal killed in January, 1868, near the viaduct on the Lancaster and
+Ulverstone Railway, and now preserved in the Kendal Museum. Professor
+Turner (‘_Journal of Anatomy and Physiology_,’ vol. ix. p. 163) says
+that he has himself examined this specimen, and found the dentition
+exactly to agree with that of the skulls of the Greenland Seals with
+which he compared it. The individual in question, a male, measured six
+feet from the tip of the nose to the “point of the hind toes,” and the
+colour indicated the age to be about three years. Previously to this,
+the claims of this species to a place in our list rested principally
+upon the skulls of two Seals killed in the Severn, and exhibited by
+Dr. Reilly at the meeting of the British Association at Bristol in
+1836. These skulls were at first referred by Professor Nilsson to
+_Ph. hispida_, but afterwards, both by that gentleman and Professor
+Bell, determined to belong to _Ph. grœnlandica_. Doubts having been
+thrown on the accuracy of this decision, Professor Bell, in the second
+edition of his ‘British Quadrupeds’ p. 253, again states his belief
+that he was correct in assigning them to the young of this species.
+These specimens are unfortunately lost. Several supposed cases of the
+occurrence of this species are recorded, but in no instance were they
+supported by the production of the animal itself. Dr. Saxby (‘_Zool._’
+1864) says that this Seal is not rare in bad weather in the Voe of
+Baltasound, Shetland; and Mr. H. Evans, of Darnley Abbey, Derbyshire,
+in the year 1856, shot what he believes to have been a Greenland Seal
+near Roundstone, county Galway,--“Unfortunately, the animal sank and
+was lost; but Mr. Evans, who is well acquainted with the common and
+grey species, is perfectly certain that it was quite different from
+either” (Bell, 2 edit., p. 254). Perhaps the best authenticated case of
+the supposed occurrence of this species on our shores is given by Mr.
+H. D. Graham in Part I., vol. i. of the ‘Proceedings of the Nat. Hist.
+Society of Glasgow,’ p. 53 (Feb. 24, 1863). Three large white Seals
+were seen by Mr. Graham in Loch Tabert, Jura, Western Isles, lying on
+some shelving rocks, about 300 or 400 yards from the shore. They were
+watched through an excellent deer-stalking telescope for three hours,
+and Mr. Graham states that the characteristic markings of the Harp Seal
+could be distinctly seen. He also believes that, in three authentic
+instances, captures of _white_ Seals, of extraordinary size, had been
+made, and states some particulars of the habits and appearance of these
+animals, as communicated to him by the islanders--to whom they appear
+to have been well known,--which render it highly probable that they
+belonged to this species. Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown[12] also saw four
+Seals, which he believes to have been of this species, on a rock in
+the Sound of Harris, on May 2nd, 1870. They took to the water, but
+as they “kept close in, and often rushed past within a few feet” of
+where he and his companion were standing, they had an excellent view of
+them, and “the large splashy-looking dark marks on either side of the
+back” were distinctly visible. Although essentially an Arctic species,
+this animal has a very wide geographical range, which, added to its
+migratory habits, renders it not at all improbable that individuals
+occasionally wander to our shores.
+
+This species is a native of the Arctic Ocean, and ranges from the
+N.E. coast of America to the Kara Sea (where it was found by the
+Swedish Arctic Expedition in 1875), changing its quarters according to
+season.[13] It is this species which constitutes the chief object of
+pursuit in the northern Seal-fishery, and the season chosen for the
+attack is when they visit the ice for the purpose of producing their
+young ones. Dr. Brown says, “They take to the ice, to bring forth
+their young, generally between the middle of March and the middle of
+April, according to the state of the season, &c., the most common time
+being about the end of March. At this time they can be seen literally
+covering the frozen waste, with the aid of a telescope, from the
+‘crow’s-nest,’ at the main royal mast-head, and have on such occasions
+been calculated to number upwards of half a million of males and
+females.”[14] The young, when born, are pure white, which changes to
+a yellow tint. At about 14 days old they begin to take to the water,
+and at the age of a month are capable of taking care of themselves:
+they then assume a spotted coat, which changes gradually to the adult
+markings, which are perfected in about three years. The adult male is
+about five feet long, the body generally of a tawny grey, varying to
+nearly white, marked with a conspicuous band of dark brown or black
+spots running into each other, which, commencing on the upper part of
+the back between the shoulders and curving downwards, is continued
+along the sides, disappearing before it reaches the hind flippers.
+The under parts are a dingy white, and the muzzle nearly black. The
+female, according to Dr. Brown, rarely reaches five feet in length,
+and is a dull white or yellowish straw-colour, tawny on the back, and
+with similar markings to the male, but somewhat lighter. Some are
+bluish or dark grey on the back, with “oval markings of a dark colour
+apparently impressed on a yellowish or reddish-brown ground:” these,
+Dr. Brown believes to be young females. The adult Greenland Seal is
+readily recognized, but it varies so greatly in its different stages
+of immaturity, and individuals differ so much from each other, that
+the most trustworthy characters are to be found in the dentition and
+the structure of the skull, which should in all cases be preserved, as
+affording the most ready and reliable means of determining the species
+of doubtful individuals. As has before been said, the second toe of the
+fore flipper is the longest in this species.
+
+
+HOODED SEAL.
+
+The HOODED OR BLADDER-NOSED SEAL, _Cystophora cristata_ (Erxleben),
+fig. 5, has occurred at least thrice upon our shores. In June, 1847, a
+young one was killed in the Orwell, and is now in the Ipswich Museum;
+in 1872 a second young one was killed in Scotland near St. Andrew’s;
+and a third specimen, an adult male, was caught in February, 1873, at
+Frodsham, on the Cheshire side of the Mersey, and lived in captivity
+till the beginning of the following June (Pr. Liverpool Soc. xxvii.
+p. 63). Others are believed to have been obtained in the Orkneys. Mr.
+Howard Saunders was assured that the “Bladder-nose” is well-known as a
+visitor to the Vae Skerries, Shetland (Alston’s ‘Mammalia of Scotland,’
+p. 15); and a Seal supposed to be of this species was seen off the
+Irish coast near Westport. In Hollingshed’s ‘Chronicles,’ in the year
+1577, sundry fishes of monstrous shape, with cowls on their heads like
+monks, and in the rest resembling the body of a man, are said to have
+occurred in the Firth of Forth (Bell’s ‘Brit. Quads.’), the appearance
+of which was of course followed by pestilence and famine. Throughout
+the Polar seas this species is widely distributed, being found in the
+Greenland seas, Iceland, and Spitzbergen, also occasionally in the
+temperate waters of Europe and America. It is polygamous and migratory
+in its habits: during the rutting season it is very pugnacious, and
+Dr. Brown says great battles take place between the males, and their
+roaring is said to be so loud that it can be heard for miles off. The
+young, which are born in April, are pure white at first, which changes
+to grey, and gradually becomes darker till it assumes the adult colour
+and markings, which it appears to do about the fourth year; the colour
+then is “dark chestnut or black, with a greater or less number of
+round or oval markings of a still deeper hue.” The adult is furnished
+with a curious bladder-like appendage, commencing at the nostrils,
+with which it is connected, and continued upwards to the forehead:
+this, when inflated, presents a very remarkable appearance; when the
+animal is at rest it remains flaccid, but when irritated or excited,
+it is blown up to its full extent. It is generally believed that the
+“bladder” is found only in the male, but Dr. Brown does not think there
+is any just ground for this belief; he does not, however, assign any
+reason for doubting what has been positively asserted to be the case.
+The Bladder-nose Seal is fierce in its nature and dangerous to attack;
+although not actually taking the initiative it is always ready for
+battle, and will avail itself of any advantage by turning upon and
+following its opponent. The air-bladder, which is placed in the spot
+usually most vulnerable, renders it difficult to kill, as it forms a
+protection from the clubs of the sealers. This is one of the largest of
+the Northern Seals, varying, according to different authorities, from 7
+to 10 or even 12 feet in length. The first toe of the fore flipper is
+the longest.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 5. HOODED SEAL (_Cystophora cristata_).]
+
+
+THE GREY SEAL.
+
+One other species of true Seal, the GREY SEAL, _Halichœrus gryphus_
+(Fab.), claims a place in the British Fauna. Dr. Brown says the Grey
+Seal “has no doubt been frequently confounded with other species,
+particularly _Ph. barbata_ and _Ph. grœnlandica_.” Such has undoubtedly
+been the case, and a specimen in the British Museum, long regarded as
+_Ph. barbata_, has been referred to this species. There is, I believe,
+no sufficient evidence that _Ph. barbata_ has ever occurred on the
+British coast; but so imperfect even now is our acquaintance with the
+Seals which frequent our shores, that it may even yet be found. As
+before mentioned, the bristles forming the “whiskers” of _Ph. barbata_,
+are simple flattened hairs, without the impressed pattern found in
+the bristles of the known British species; they are nearly the same
+thickness throughout, and sharply curved near the end.
+
+The Grey Seal has been found on various parts of the coast, from
+Shetland to the Isle of Wight; the Orkney and Shetland Isles, the
+Hebrides, and the west coast of Ireland, however, appear to be its
+chief places of resort on our shores; it has also been known to breed
+on the Fern Islands. Haskier Island, off North Uist, has long been
+known as a favourite breeding-place of this species. Captain Elwes,
+who visited this island on the 30th June, 1868 (‘Ibis,’ 1869, p. 25),
+informed Mr. Harvie-Brown that, up to the year 1858, an annual battle
+was held there in the month of November, when the Seals resort to the
+rocks with their young ones, and that from forty to one hundred, old
+and young, would be killed. This wholesale destruction has been put a
+stop to, and as it is extremely shy and difficult to approach at other
+seasons, it is to be hoped that this species may for some time escape
+extermination in this favourite resort.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 6. GREY SEAL (_Halichœrus gryphus_).]
+
+According to Bell, this species inhabits the “temperate northern seas
+rather than the Polar waters,” and is found in the North Sea, Baltic,
+Iceland, Scandinavia, Denmark, and North Germany. Dr. Brown met with
+a specimen a little south of Discoe Island, but can only speak of its
+claims to a place in the Greenland Fauna as strongly probable. Bell
+gives some interesting information with regard to the habits of this
+species as observed in various British stations, and calls attention
+to the remarkable fact, that whereas in this country it produces its
+young in the months of October and November, on the Continent this is
+always said to take place in February; he suggests, to account for
+this singular discrepancy, that in our milder climate pairing takes
+place much earlier than in Scandinavia. The young, which are born
+white, are suckled for about a fortnight; the first coat is shed before
+they take to the water, which is not for some weeks after birth. The
+colour varies with age, sex, and season, so much, that it is not of
+great service in their identification, their large size being the best
+external guide. Lloyd, in his ‘Game-birds and Wild-fowl of Sweden and
+Norway,’ speaking of this species, says that even should it somewhat
+resemble the Common Seal in size and colour, as is at times the case,
+it may always be readily distinguished from the latter by the greater
+length of its claws and the superior breadth of its muzzle. The claws
+project considerably beyond the ends of the toes, the first of which is
+the longest. The general colour of the adult is greyish, tinged with
+yellow, and spotted and blotched with darker grey; the under parts
+lighter. The length of the adult varies from 7 to 10 feet. By the form
+of its skull and teeth it is readily distinguished, as well as by the
+great size of the animal. In the skull the brain-case is small, the
+nasal opening very large, and the grinders conical, only the two hinder
+pair in the upper, and the last pair in the lower jaw, double-rooted,
+the rest simple. Professor Bell, in his history of ‘British
+Quadrupeds,’ gives the generic and specific characters, as well as
+excellent figures of the skulls of the various British Seals, which
+will be found most useful in determining the species of any doubtful
+individuals; other figures will be found in Dr. Gray’s ‘Catalogue of
+the Seals and Whales in the British Museum.’
+
+
+THE WALRUS, OR MORSE.
+
+Of the many strange forms which the Zoological Society of London
+has been the means of introducing to the stay-at-home naturalists
+of this country, certainly not the least interesting is that of the
+Walrus (_Trichechus rosmarus_, Linn.) It is true that in neither of
+the instances in which the young animal has been brought alive to the
+Gardens, has it long survived in its new home; but, short though its
+residence amongst us, the opportunity has been afforded to many of
+becoming acquainted with the Arctic stranger in _propriâ personâ_,
+instead of through the distorted medium of the badly-stuffed skins,
+or the equally bad representations of this interesting animal, which,
+until recently, we have possessed. The first recorded appearance of
+the Walrus in this country was, I believe, in 1624, when, according to
+Hakluyt’s ‘Pilgrimes,’ a young one was brought to England by Master
+Thomas Welden, in the _God-speed_, and duly presented at Court. In
+1853 the Zoological Society became possessed of a young one, which
+lived only a few days in their Gardens. On the 1st of November, 1867,
+another was received, which lived till the 19th of December, when it
+unfortunately died, notwithstanding the care bestowed upon it, both
+as regards food and accommodation. This last was captured by the
+whale-ship _Arctic_, on the 28th of August, 1867, in lat. 69° N. and
+long. 64° W., and brought to Dundee, whence it was conveyed by Mr.
+Bartlett to the Society’s Gardens. The captain of the _Arctic_ saw two
+or three hundred walruses basking upon the ice, and sent out his boats
+to the attack: among the killed was an old female followed by her young
+one; the latter was taken on board and eventually brought to England.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 7. WALRUS, OR MORSE (_Trichechus rosmarus_).]
+
+Although now confined to the icy seas of the Arctic circle, the Walrus
+was probably not uncommon on our shores in times long past. The skull
+is said to have been found in the peat near Ely, and Hector Boece,
+in his ‘Cronikles of Scotland,’ mentions it as a regular inhabitant
+of our shores in the end of the 15th century: in the present century
+it has occurred several times, although it must be considered as a
+very rare straggler, sadly out of its latitude. Wallace says that
+its fossil remains have been found in Europe as far south as France,
+and in America probably as far south as Virginia, and it was common
+in the Gulf of St. Lawrence so late as 1770 (Leith Adams). In recent
+times it has retreated before its great enemy, man, from the northern
+coasts of Scandinavia to the circumpolar ice of Asia, America, and
+Europe, sometimes, but rarely, reaching as far south as lat. 60°. In
+Smith’s Sound the Walrus does not appear to move further north than
+Cape Frazer, the meeting-place of the polar and southern tides: at this
+point Captain Feilden saw a single example. Whenever met with, it is
+the object of ruthless persecution, and is rapidly and surely becoming
+exterminated wherever man can reach it; and but for its ice-loving
+habits, which render its present strongholds always difficult, and
+sometimes impossible, of access, it would doubtless long ere this have
+become extinct.
+
+Recently it has been met with on our shores, according to Bell, on the
+coast of Harris in 1817; in the Orkneys in 1825; one was seen in 1827
+in Hoy Sound, but not captured; and in 1841 one was killed near Harris.
+Dr. Brown also states that two were seen, one in Orkney and the other
+in Shetland, in 1857. Prof. Heddle also informed Mr. Harvie-Brown that
+in 1849 or 1850 he saw an adult, and a young one, off the coast of the
+parish of Walls, in Orkney (Harvie-Brown, _Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. of
+Glasgow_, 1879, p. 97.)[15]
+
+The _Trichechus_ may be considered as intermediate between the true
+Seals and the Eared Seals, to both of which families it has affinities:
+it is carnivorous, feeding on mollusks, fish, and when it can get it,
+the flesh of whales. The stomach of one, examined by Captain Feilden,
+contained a large amount of green fluid oil, in which small particles
+of _Ulva latissima_ could be detected, and minute fragments of the
+shells of _Mya_. Its habits were so well and succinctly described by
+Captain Cook a hundred years ago, that I cannot do better than quote
+his own words, the accuracy of which has since been amply confirmed.
+Whilst in Behring’s Straits, in lat. 70° 6′, and long. 196° 42′, on the
+19th of August, 1778, Cook first met with the Walrus: “they lie,” he
+says, “in herds of many hundreds upon the ice, huddling one over the
+other like swine, and roar or bray very loud; so that in the night, or
+in foggy weather, they gave us notice of the vicinity of the ice before
+we could see it. We never found the whole herd asleep, some being
+always on the watch. These, on the approach of the boat, would wake
+those next to them, and the alarm being thus gradually communicated,
+the whole herd would awake presently. But they were seldom in a hurry
+to get away till after they had been once fired at, then they would
+tumble one over the other into the sea in the utmost confusion; and if
+we did not at the first discharge kill those we fired at, we generally
+lost them, though mortally wounded. They do not appear to us to be that
+dangerous animal some authors have described; not even when attacked.
+They are rather more so to appearance than in reality. Vast numbers
+of them would follow and come close up to the boats, but the flash of
+a musquet in the pan, or even the bare pointing of one at them, would
+send them down in an instant. The female will defend the young one to
+the very last, and at the expense of her own life, whether in the water
+or upon the ice. Nor will the young one quit the dam, though she be
+dead; so that if you kill one you are sure of the other. The dam, when
+in the water, holds the young one between her fore-fins.”[16] Since
+Cook’s time the Walrus has learned to fear man, its only enemy except
+the Polar Bear, and is more difficult to approach. When wounded, or its
+young in danger, it has been known fiercely to attack the boats sent
+for its capture, striving to overturn them, and piercing their sides
+with its tusks: many serious accidents have been the result.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 8. _Vacca marina_ (reduced from Gesner).]
+
+The number of Walruses killed annually by the Norwegian and Russian
+hunters is very considerable; probably nearly an equal number are
+wounded and lost. As the female produces only a single young one at
+a birth, which is said to remain with the mother nearly two years,
+“until its tusks are grown long enough to be used in grubbing up the
+shell mud at the sea-bottom,” it will readily be imagined that the
+destruction is greatly in excess of the production, and that they
+are rapidly decreasing in numbers. A communication in the _Field_ of
+March 27th, 1880 (p. 381), received from St. Francisco, points out
+even more serious consequences resulting from the reckless destruction
+of the Walrus than the mere extermination of a species, itself a
+matter of no small regret. “If,” says the writer, “the whalers reach
+Behring Strait before the ice breaks up, they remain on the coast, and
+often hunt the Walrus for weeks together, with startling and serious
+results. Last year’s campaign was considered successful, as about
+11,000 Walruses were secured, most of them within the Arctic Sea. But
+to attain this result, _between thirty and forty thousand animals were
+killed_, so that only _one-third_ of the number destroyed were actually
+utilised. There can be no doubt as to the ultimate consequence of such
+glaring imprudence; but last year they were so painfully apparent as
+to touch even the hearts of those who occasioned them. Not that the
+whalers were moved to compassion by the victims themselves, but by
+the sufferings of the human beings who were deprived of their chief
+source of subsistence. The hardy tribes in the neighbourhood of Behring
+Strait literally cannot exist without the Walrus, and so long as they
+were its only human enemies the number destroyed was inconsiderable.
+But the herds soon dwindled under the superior weapons and appliances
+of civilised nations, and the survivors retreated, like the Whales,
+towards the Pole. By the end of last season, not a single Walrus was
+left on the coast, and the immediate result was such a terrible famine
+among the natives that the whalers themselves speak of it remorsefully.
+The population north of St. Lawrence Bay has been reduced by one-third;
+and in a village which formerly contained 200 inhabitants, only one man
+survived. Several of the whalers have consequently refused to take any
+part in future Walrus hunts on the coast; they assert that for every
+hundred animals killed, a native family must perish by starvation, and
+they will not incur so heavy a responsibility.”
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 9. HEAD OF WALRUS (Modified after Murie).]
+
+About the month of August they repair to the shore, and congregating in
+vast herds on the beach of some secluded bay, lie for weeks together
+in a semi-torpid condition, without moving or feeding. Should their
+retreat be discovered whilst in this state, great is the slaughter.
+Mr. Lamont, in his ‘Seasons with the Sea Horses,’ says that in 1852,
+on a small island off Spitzbergen (one of the Thousand Islands), two
+small sloops discovered a herd of Walruses consisting of three or four
+thousand, nine hundred of which they succeeded in killing, only a small
+portion of the produce of which, however, they were able to carry away.
+
+The colour of the Walrus is brown, paling with age, and the skin is
+thickly covered with short hairs; the adult reaches the length of 10
+or 15 feet, or, according to some authorities, even more, and weighs
+from two to three thousand pounds. Its rounded head, heavy muzzle,
+thickly set with stout bristles, small, round blood-shot eyes, and
+formidable tusks, give to this animal a ferocious appearance which
+is foreign to its nature, except when greatly excited or at pairing
+time, when the old bulls are said to fight with great fierceness and
+determination. A full-grown Walrus will yield from five to six hundred
+pounds of blubber, the oil from which, however, is not so fine as that
+of the Seal. The ivory tusks were formerly much used by dentists; at
+present, I believe, owing to the introduction of vulcanite, very little
+is applied to that purpose. Mr. Lamont mentions 24 in. in length and 4
+lb. each in weight, as the size of a good pair of bull’s tusks: a pair
+in the Norwich Museum measure 32 in. in length, and the heavier of the
+two weighs 9 lb. 9 oz. The immensely elongated canine teeth which form
+the “tusks,” are found in both sexes, but are shorter and more slender
+in the female than in the male. The skin of the Walrus is valuable for
+many purposes.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 10. “SEA HORSE” (_After Cook_).]
+
+Few animals, so long known to man, have, when figured, been represented
+so inaccurately as the Walrus: the hind feet are almost invariably
+depicted extended backwards, like those of the Seal (so also in stuffed
+specimens), whereas in the living animals they can be directed to the
+front, and serve as supports to the body in progression on the land or
+ice, in the same manner as the hind limbs of the eared seals. Dr. J.
+E. Gray, in an article ‘On the Attitudes and Figures of the Morse,’
+in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London for 1853, pp.
+112-16, reproduces some of the wonderful prints of this animal from old
+authors, most of which are purely imaginary: Fig. 8, p. 37, is copied
+from one of these. By far the best portrait known, till quite recently,
+is one published in Amsterdam in 1613, where an old female and her
+young one are very accurately depicted: this has been reproduced in
+Bell’s ‘British Quadrupeds,’ 2nd edition, p. 269. Fig. 10 is copied
+from the “Sea Horse,” in the foreground of Cook’s illustration in ‘A
+Voyage to the Pacific,’ &c., 1784 edit., vol. ii., p. 446; as will
+be seen, this figure forms the source from which most subsequent
+illustrations were derived. Fig. 7 is taken, by kind permission of the
+late Mr. F. Buckland, from his ‘Log-book of a Fisherman and Zoologist,’
+and represents “Jemmy,” the young Walrus, whose brief sojourn in the
+Zoological Gardens has already been referred to. One of Mr. Wolf’s
+“Zoological Sketches” represents a herd of Walruses in almost every
+conceivable attitude, and of course beautifully drawn and coloured.
+
+Some authors recognise two distinct species of Walrus, one of which
+is said to be confined to the northern shores of the Atlantic,
+the other to the Pacific Ocean. Mr. Allen, in the ‘North American
+Pinnipeds,’ enters at length into the subject, and minutely describes
+the peculiarities which characterise each species. Reviving, after the
+example of Malmgren, the almost obsolete generic name of _Odobænus_, he
+describes the Atlantic Walrus under the name _O. rosmarus_; the animal
+found in the Pacific he calls _O. obesus_. The chief external points
+of difference in the latter appear to be in the facial outline, the
+longer and thinner tusks, “generally more convergent, with much greater
+inward curvature; the mystacial bristles shorter and smaller, and the
+muzzle relatively deeper and broader, in corelation with the greater
+breadth and depth of the skull anteriorly.” The eyes are also said to
+lack the “fiery red” appearance attributed to the Atlantic Walrus,
+and to be smaller and very protuberant. Cook’s figure reproduced at
+p. 41, also that at p. 177 of Scammon’s book, are those of _Odobænus
+obesus_, and the fine pair of tusks mentioned at p. 40, as now in the
+Norwich Museum, were probably also obtained from a Pacific Walrus. The
+figure at p. 33, and the excellent figure by Wolf, at p. 457 of Lloyd’s
+‘Game-birds and Wild-fowl of Sweden and Norway,’ are of the Atlantic
+Walrus.
+
+It is much to be regretted that the extinction of this harmless and
+useful animal is merely a matter of time, and that perhaps before
+many years have passed it may have ceased to exist; the only hope
+appears to be that when it has become too scarce to render its
+pursuit remunerative, a remnant may still be left to continue the
+species around the far off and unapproachable islands of the Arctic
+seas. Even in Franz Josef Land, where, in the summer of 1880, Mr.
+Leigh-Smith found the Walrus very abundant: it will probably not
+long remain unmolested, for that gentleman informed Captain Feilden
+that the Norwegian walrus-hunters, when they heard of his discovery,
+talked of pushing on for Franz Josef Land next summer, the Spitsbergen
+walrus-hunting having become very uncertain, from the paucity and
+wariness of the animals.[17]
+
+
+
+
+CETACEA.
+
+
+The occasional stranding upon our shores of some monster member of the
+order CETACEA serves from time to time to reawaken our interest in
+these wonderful animals, and sets us thinking how little we know about
+them, and how small is our acquaintance with their life-history.
+
+Nor is this lack of information surprising when we consider that
+the difficulties in the way of studying the larger Cetacea, are so
+great as to be almost insuperable to any ordinary person, and even
+to the leaders of zoological science rarely does the opportunity
+present itself of examining specimens in the flesh; for, of the rare
+instances in which they are cast ashore, the majority occur in wild
+and unfrequented parts of the coast, where they are probably cut up
+for their oil before a naturalist has an opportunity of examining
+them. From their unnatural position when cast up, and their altered
+appearance, owing to the falling in of some parts and the distension of
+others, correct portraiture is almost impossible; and their great size
+renders it difficult and expensive to make them serviceable to science,
+while from the putrid condition in which they are frequently found, a
+close examination is too often anything but agreeable. If seen in their
+native element, where alone they _should_ be seen duly to appreciate
+their grand proportions and perfect adaptation to their mode of life,
+the view must be brief and too often distant, certainly affording rare
+opportunities for close observation. There is thus little left for
+naturalists to study, except the bony skeletons, and of these often
+mere fragments. Under these circumstances, we shall cease to wonder at
+the great confusion which, till recently, existed in the classification
+and nomenclature of the _Cetacea_, and which has been only partially
+cleared away, chiefly by the labours of Professors Flower and Turner
+in this country, and by Professors Eschricht, Reinhardt, Van Beneden,
+Gervais, and others on the continent. The literature of the subject is
+widely scattered and difficult of access; and, although Dr. Gray and
+Professor Flower have done much to condense and systematize what is
+known, our acquaintance with the tropical and southern species of this
+interesting order is not at present sufficient to furnish materials
+for a monograph worthy of the subject. No class of animals has been
+called so many names, or so vilely caricatured in portraits, as the
+unfortunate Whales.
+
+It is scarcely necessary now to say that the _Cetacea_ hold a fully
+recognized place in the great class _Mammalia_, although this honour
+has not always been accorded to them. Ray classed them with the Fishes;
+and although Linnæus finally placed them in their true position,
+Pennant, following his earlier mistake, failed to do so. The members
+of this order, which includes the Whales proper, Narwhal, Dolphins,
+and Porpoises (with which, until recently, the Dugong and Manatees
+were improperly associated under the name of Herbivorous Cetaceans),
+bring forth their young alive. These are nourished by the female,
+which, for this purpose, is furnished with two inguinal mammæ. They are
+warm-blooded, and breathe by means of lungs, rendering frequent visits
+to the surface of the water necessary, as the animal can only respire
+when the orifice of the nostrils, called the blow-hole, which is placed
+on the top of the head, is above water. The breathing apparatus is very
+peculiar, being so modified that the air is admitted into the trachea
+without passing through the mouth; the Whale can thus breathe freely,
+provided the blow-hole be above water, even when its mouth is submerged
+or filled with water. There are no external ears, but a small aperture
+situated just behind the eye, communicates with a perfectly-constructed
+internal hearing apparatus, and this, as the water is an excellent
+conductor of sound, is all-sufficient. The food of the _Cetacea_
+consists of various forms of marine animals, from the Seal, which
+frequently forms a meal to the fierce Grampus, to the minute creatures
+which go to build up the giant form of the Right-Whale. Some possess
+numerous formidable teeth in both jaws; others have teeth in the
+lower jaw only; and in one section the teeth are only present in the
+embryo, but in their stead, from the upper jaw depend curious plates,
+arranged side by side, to which the name of _baleen_ has been given.
+The animal is encased in a layer of fat called “blubber,” which lies
+beneath the skin, and serves to retain the heat of the body, and the
+skin is smooth, polished, and quite devoid of hair or scales. On the
+back of most species is found a fleshy dorsal fin, and the fore limbs
+are represented by flippers externally undivided; the hind limbs, so
+far as external appearance is concerned, are altogether absent, but a
+rudimentary pelvis is found embedded in the flesh. The tail-fin forms
+the chief organ of locomotion: it is always fixed horizontally, and is
+of great size and power, enabling the animal, by its vigorous use, to
+attain great speed. There are many and striking peculiarities in the
+bony skeleton which it is not necessary here to enumerate.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 11. MEDIAN SECTION, SHOWING OUTSIDE LEFT HALF OF
+SKULL OF WHALEBONE WHALE, WITH BALEEN IN POSITION (_modified after
+Eschricht_).
+
+ =Br.=, brain cavity; =J=, =J*=, upper and lower jaw-bones; =bo=,
+ =bo=, being roughened parts of the bone sawn through; arrows indicate
+ the narial passages, which open at =s=, spout-hole; =w=, whalebone;
+ =t=, tongue, in dotted outline; =n=, nerve aperture, lower jaw.
+]
+
+Before proceeding to give some account of the species which have been
+found in the British Seas, it will first be necessary to say a few
+words as to the arrangement of the genera and species. I shall enter
+into this part of the subject, however, so far only as is necessary for
+us clearly to understand the relative positions of the species which we
+shall have to consider.
+
+Professor Flower divides the order _Cetacea_ into two sub-orders:
+First, _Mystacoceti_, or _Balænoidea_, in all the members of
+which baleen takes the place of teeth, which are never developed,
+disappearing before birth; second, _Odontoceti_ or _Delphinoidea_,
+in which teeth (sometimes very numerous) are always developed after
+birth. The first sub-order is a very restricted one, embracing only
+two families, _Balænidæ_ and _Balænopteridæ_, to the former of which
+belong the two genera of Right-Whales, _Balæna_ and _Eubalæna_; and
+to the latter, two genera, namely, _Megaptera_ and _Balænoptera_. To
+these two genera[18] belong the Rorquals, which occasionally occur
+in the British seas. The second sub-order, _Odontoceti_, contains
+the families of _Physeteridæ_, represented by the Sperm Whale,
+Beaked Whale, and several allied species; _Platanistidæ_, consisting
+of some curious forms found only in India and South America; and
+_Delphinidæ_, comprising the Narwhal, Beluga, or White Whale, Grampus,
+Porpoise, and Dolphins. The total number of British _Cetacea_ has been
+variously estimated; Dr. Gray, in 1864, described thirty, and in 1873
+thirty-three species; while Bell, whom we shall follow, recognised only
+twenty-two species in his second edition, published in 1874.
+
+The following table of the British Cetacea will serve to indicate at a
+glance the precise position assigned to each species, in the two main
+divisions into which the order is divided:--
+
+
+ BRITISH CETACEA.
+
+ +---------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ | SUB-ORDER. FAMILY. SUB-FAMILY. GENERA. |
+ | |
+ | {Balænidæ Balæninæ Balæna |
+ | =1.= { |
+ |MYSTACOCETI { {Megapterinæ Megaptera |
+ | (=Whalebone-Whales.=) {Balænopteridæ { |
+ | {Balænopterinæ Balænoptera |
+ | |
+ | |
+ | |
+ | {Physeterinæ Physeter |
+ | {Physeteridæ { {Hyperoodon |
+ | { { { |
+ | { {Ziphiinæ {Ziphius |
+ | =2.= { {Mesoplodon |
+ |ODONTOCETI { { Beluginæ {Monodon |
+ | (=Toothed Whales.=) { { {Delphinapterus |
+ | {Delphinidæ { {Orca |
+ | { {Grampus |
+ | { Delphininæ {Globicephalus |
+ | {Phocœna |
+ | { |
+ | { Delphinus |
+ | |
+ | |
+ +---------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+ +------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ | SUB-ORDER. SPECIES. |
+ | |
+ | {(?) B. mysticetus, _Right-Whale_ |
+ | =1.= {B. biscayensis, _Atlantic Right-Whale_ |
+ |MYSTACOCETI M. longimana, _Hump-backed Whale_ |
+ | (=Whalebone-Whales.=) {B. musculus, _Common Rorqual_ |
+ | {B. sibbaldii, _Sibbald’s_ ” |
+ | {B. laticeps, _Rudolphi’s_ ” |
+ | {B. rostrata, _Lesser_ ” |
+ | |
+ | P. macrocephalus, _Sperm Whale_ |
+ | {H. rostratum, _Beaked Whale_ |
+ | {H. latifrons, _Broad-fronted Beaked Whale_|
+ | Z. cavirostris, _Cuvier’s Whale_ |
+ | =2.= M. bidens, _Sowerby’s Whale_ |
+ |ODONTOCETI M. monoceros, _Narwhal_ |
+ | (=Toothed Whales.=) D. leucas, _White Whale, or Beluga_ |
+ | O. gladiator, _Grampus, or Killer_ |
+ | G. griseus, _Risso’s Grampus_ |
+ | G. melas, _Pilot Whale_ |
+ | P. communis, _Porpoise_ |
+ | {D. delphis, _Common Dolphin_ |
+ | {D. tursio, _Bottle-nosed Dolphin_ |
+ | {D. acutus, _White-sided Dolphin_ |
+ | {D. albirostris, _White-beaked Dolphin_ |
+ +------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+
+MYSTACOCETI (WHALEBONE WHALES.)
+
+
+_BALÆNIDÆ._
+
+
+THE GREENLAND RIGHT-WHALE.
+
+The first species, both in order and importance, of the Family
+_Balænidæ_ is the well-known _Balæna mysticetus_, the GREENLAND, or
+RIGHT-WHALE as it is called by the whalers. So extremely doubtful,
+however, are the claims of this animal to a place in the British Fauna,
+that it is retained in the present treatise solely on account of the
+great interest attaching to it as a species, and not from any idea
+of maintaining for it a position, which, although hitherto assigned
+to it, has now become untenable. The use of the term well-known is
+perhaps unadvised; for, although this species has engaged the energies
+and industry of the merchant seamen of Northern Europe for centuries,
+so little was known of it scientifically, that not a single skeleton
+had ever found its way into any European museum, until Eschricht
+obtained one from Holsteinborg, in Greenland, in 1846. The recorded
+instances of the supposed occurrence of this species in the British
+Seas are unsatisfactory in the extreme. The most positive record is
+that in Messrs. Paget’s ‘Natural History of Great Yarmouth.’ They say:
+“_Balæna mysticetus_--common Whale--a small one taken near Yarmouth,
+July 8, 1784.” Sir James Paget, however, in a letter to the Author,
+is unable to add to the brief statement, as will be seen from the
+following extract from his communication:--“I am sorry I can give you
+no information respecting the Whale taken off Yarmouth in 1784; I
+have no notes as to the source from which I derived the statement, but
+probably it was from some MS. of Mr. Dawson Turner’s. It is not likely
+that any bones of the Whale were kept in Yarmouth, for there was no
+naturalist there at the time, and the whaling-trade, which was then
+actively carried on from the port, must have made Whales’ bones very
+common.” This is all that is ever likely to be learned of the Yarmouth
+Right-whale; but the season at which it occurred would render the
+heated seas on our coast utterly unbearable to an ice-loving inhabitant
+of the Arctic seas. This, with its small size, would seem to point
+to a closely-allied species to be mentioned soon. Sibbald records
+the occurrence of what he considers was probably a Right-whale, at
+Peterhead, in 1682; and a Whale recorded at Tynemouth by Willughby may
+have been of this species. In the first edition of Bell’s ‘Quadrupeds’
+is a communication from the Rev. Mr. Barclay to the effect that on the
+coast of Zetland dead or very lean Whales of this species have several
+times been found or have run aground; but in the second edition of the
+same work the authors state that “there is no proof these references do
+not apply to some other species.” The same may be said with reference
+to Low’s remarks in the ‘Fauna Orcadensis,’ p. 158. This is all we know
+of the supposed occurrence of Right-Whales in British waters in recent
+times, and there is little doubt that these, if Right-Whales at all,
+should be referred to the next species.
+
+The extreme northern habitat assigned to this species by those who
+have devoted much time and labour to the investigation of the subject,
+clearly proves that it must either have changed its habitat, which its
+present habits seem to render improbable, or that some other species
+formerly inhabited the temperate seas outside the Arctic circle
+extending southward to the Atlantic as far as latitude 40°, for it is
+beyond doubt that a brisk whale-fishery was carried on in former times
+by the Basque population in the Bay of Biscay and adjacent seas as far
+back as the 8th or 10th century. That such a southern species, distinct
+from the northern Right-whale did exist, is proved by Professors
+Eschricht and Reinhardt in their splendid memoir of the ‘Greenland
+Whale,’ a translation of which, edited by Professor Flower, was
+published by the ‘Ray Society’ in 1866, and of that species we shall
+give some account further on.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 12. GREENLAND RIGHT-WHALE (_Balæna mysticetus_,
+Linn.)]
+
+It has been asserted that the Greenland Whales supposed formerly to
+have visited our coasts, have been driven north by the increased
+traffic in the more frequented seas of temperate Europe; but from the
+habits of this species as observed on the west coast of Greenland, at
+the fishing stations established by the Danish Government, and recorded
+in the memoir just referred to, no confirmation of this theory is
+afforded. The fishery at these stations was prosecuted from the shore
+when the Whales appeared upon the coast in the winter months; as the
+spring advanced they followed the receding ice-line, and were seen in
+summer as far north in Baffin’s Bay as ships had at that time succeeded
+in penetrating, whilst their southward range in winter was always
+limited by a rather northerly degree of latitude. This, it is shown,
+went on with the greatest regularity for at least 80 years, during
+which the Whales constantly made their appearance at the same places,
+at the same season, without the slightest alteration taking place. The
+fact of the Whales always moving northward as the ice breaks up, will
+account for their being found in the spring in different latitudes;
+thus, on the Greenland coast, they are found, at this season, in
+latitude 65° 25′; but in Davis’ Strait, in 61° to 62°, always, however,
+inseparable from the ice. Messrs. Eschricht and Reinhardt thus
+conclude: “It seems, therefore, that the Whales have not retreated
+further north, as they are still found within precisely the same limits
+in which they were found at the beginning of the persecution, but in
+numbers so diminished that the fishery will hardly repay the trouble
+and expense attending it.”
+
+Capt. Feilden, the naturalist to Sir Geo. Nares’s Arctic expedition,
+speaking of the Northern range of this species, says he is quite
+satisfied that “no Whale could inhabit at the present day the frozen
+sea to the north of Robeson Channel. To penetrate from the North-water
+of Baffin Bay to Robeson Channel, would be a hazardous task for
+this great animal, and in this opinion the experienced whaling
+quartermasters, who accompanied our Expedition, coincided. We may
+dismiss from our minds the idea or hope that nearer to the Pole, and
+beyond the limits of present discovery, there may be haunts in the
+Polar Sea suitable for the Right-whale. I do not look for the speedy
+extinction of the Greenland Whale; but it is probable that in a few
+years the fishing will no longer prove profitable to the fine fleet
+of whalers that now sail from our northern ports, and I see no hope
+of Arctic discovery increasing our knowledge of the range of this
+animal.”[19]
+
+The southern limit of the Right-whale in the Northern ocean may be
+shown by a line drawn from the coast of Lapland at 70°, just touching
+the southern point of Iceland, and ending on the coast of Labrador at
+about 55° north latitude.
+
+The whaling-trade, which once employed so many hardy seamen, is now
+reduced to very narrow limits, and appears to have passed almost
+entirely into the hands of the English, or rather Scotch. The Biscayans
+were not content with exterminating the Whales found in their own seas,
+but in 1721 they had twenty vessels in the Greenland fishery; the Dutch
+also took a large part in the trade; and in the year 1680, when they
+appear to have been the most actively engaged in the fishery, they are
+said to have had about 260 ships and 14,000 men employed. In 1725 the
+South Sea Company embarked in the trade, but meeting with considerable
+losses, speedily gave it up. The Government, in order to encourage this
+languishing branch of industry, in 1732 granted a bounty of 20s. per
+ton on the oil; this, being found insufficient, was increased in 1749
+to 40s. per ton, which caused a considerable increase in the number
+of vessels; but upon Parliament, in 1777, reducing the bounty to 30s.
+per ton, the number of vessels rapidly fell off from 105 to 39; the
+bounty was then, in 1781, raised to its old level, with a corresponding
+increase in the number of vessels employed. Then followed a gradual
+process of reduction, until in the year 1824 the bounty altogether
+ceased, and the ships fell off from 112 in 1824, to 88 in 1827.[20]
+During the nine years ending 1818 there was an average of 91 English
+(sailing from eight ports), and forty-one Scotch ships (sailing from
+nine ports) employed in the trade; in 1830 they were reduced to 41
+English vessels (sailing from five ports), to which Hull contributed
+33, and 50 Scotch vessels (sailing from seven ports), to which
+Peterhead contributed 13, and Dundee 9.
+
+The years 1819 and 1830 were both very disastrous to the whale-trade;
+in the former year fourteen British vessels were lost, and in the
+latter, nineteen British ships were totally wrecked, and twelve
+seriously injured. The number of ships employed has since gradually
+decreased, and at present Dundee and Peterhead are the only two ports
+in Great Britain engaged in the whale-fishery. Dundee sends out fifteen
+powerful steam-vessels, which leave about the beginning of May, and
+if fortunate in filling up, return, according to circumstances, from
+August to the beginning of November. Peterhead sends five steamers and
+one sailing vessel; they are ship-rigged, and from two to five hundred
+tons register, and 40 to 100 horse power. The expense now incurred
+renders it necessary that a large number of Whales should be taken to
+make the voyage pay: the _Arctic_, in her voyage of 1873, captured
+twenty-eight Whales, which were estimated to produce in oil and bone
+£18,925, or about £678 per Whale, the best Whale, a female with sucker,
+was estimated at £1,500, and the smallest at only £110. An average
+Whale produces 9½ tons of oil, a ton measuring 252 gallons, and 7 ft.
+6 in. of whalebone; the longest bone cut of the twenty-eight fish was
+11 ft. 9 in. and the shortest 2 ft. 6 in. This was considered a very
+successful year. The whale-fishery was commenced at Peterhead in 1788;
+since that time, up to the year 1879, Captain David Gray informs me
+that 995 voyages have been made to the Greenland and Davis’ Straits
+whale and seal-fisheries, and there have been brought home 4195 Whales,
+furnishing 30,975 tons of oil, and 1549 tons of whalebone, besides
+1,673,052 Seals, yielding 20,913 tons of oil, leaving a nett profit
+of £583,020, or £586 per ship per voyage. The Dundee whale-fishery
+commenced in 1790, and the seal-fishery in 1860; since that time up to
+the season of 1879, 538 voyages have been made to the Greenland and
+Davis’ Straits whale and seal-fisheries, including Labrador, which have
+produced 4220 Whales, yielding 32,774 tons of oil and 1640 tons of
+whalebone, besides 917,278 Seals, yielding 10,464 tons of oil, valued
+together at £2,160,400, leaving a nett profit of £652,320, or £1212
+10s. per ship per voyage. Capt. Gray adds: “I have often been asked
+where all the Whales are gone to; let the above figures be the reply.”
+
+The present price of whale-oil is from £28 to £30 per ton, the
+whalebone ranging as high as £1100 per ton, according to the length of
+the bone; but although there are exceptions, of late years the fishery,
+as a whole, is said, on good authority, not to have paid the heavy
+expenses of the fleet engaged in it, nor does there seem much prospect
+of improvement, mineral oil being now used for many purposes for which
+formerly whale and seal oil was required. One of the chief uses to
+which whale and seal oil are now applied is in the preparation of the
+jute fibre, the manufacture of which is so extensively carried on at
+the port of Dundee, also the chief centre of the whaling-trade.
+
+An interesting account of a whaling voyage in the ship _Arctic_,
+and full particulars of the mode pursued in taking, and subsequent
+treatment of the fish, is given by Captain A. H. Markham, in his
+‘Whaling Cruise to Baffin’s Bay.’[21]
+
+The usual length of a full-grown Right-whale is about 50 feet; but Dr.
+Brown, in his paper on the Cetaceans of the Greenland Seas (_P. Z. S._,
+1868, p. 539), gives the dimensions of one which measured 65 feet. The
+general colour is black. The mouth occupies about one-third of the
+entire length, and the baleen is from 10 to 12 feet long; it has been
+known to reach the great length of 13 ft. 2 in., and 9 in. in width.
+This baleen, which is found depending from the upper jaw, consists
+of a number of horny plates, similar in structure to the horn of the
+rhinoceros, consisting of a fibrous mass glutinated together in the
+solid portion, and placed transversely along either side of the palate;
+they are arranged closely together, with the external edge smooth,
+and gradually thinning off towards the inner margin, which ends in a
+fringe of long hair-like fibres: the number of laminæ is about 300 on
+each side.[22] Captain David Gray, of the _Eclipse_, an experienced
+whaler, in a communication to ‘Land and Water,’ on December 1, 1877,
+pointed out and first satisfactorily explained the means by which these
+extraordinary appendages are disposed of when the mouth of the Whale
+is closed. He shows that when the mouth is shut, the slender ends of
+the whalebone curve backwards towards the throat, the longer ones from
+the middle of the jaw falling into the hollow formed by the shortness
+of those behind them; when the animal opens its mouth to feed, the
+whalebone springs forward and downwards, thus always by its elasticity,
+filling up the space between the upper and lower jaws, whether the
+mouth be fully or only partially open, and interposing a strainer
+between the cavity of the mouth and the external water, effectually
+preventing the food which enters the mouth from passing out with the
+flow of water which passes through the mouth as the great beast pursues
+and captures its minute food.
+
+The Whale whilst feeding swims along with its mouth open, until it
+has collected a quantity of the small marine animals which form its
+food; then, closing its capacious under jaw, it forces out the water
+between the plates of baleen, leaving the captive prey stranded on
+its huge tongue, when it swallows them at leisure. The food of the
+Greenland Whale consists entirely of small marine animals, particularly
+a kind of shrimp, found in great abundance in the Arctic seas. This
+species seldom remains under water longer than from ten to fifteen
+minutes, returning to the surface to breathe, which, if undisturbed,
+occupies from two to three minutes. Capt. Gray, however, has known
+it when harpooned to stay under water fifty minutes. Professor Owen
+describes the wonderful provision for storing of blood in a vast plexus
+of blood-vessels found in the Cetacea, at the back of the lungs and
+between them and the ribs, thus enabling them, although lung-breathing
+animals, to stay under water for so protracted a period, and states
+that the peculiar non-valvular structure of the veins of the Cetacea,
+and the pressure on these reservoirs of blood at the depths to which
+they retreat when harpooned, explain the profuse and lethal hæmorrhage
+which follows a wound, that in other mammalia would not be fatal.[23]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 13. ATLANTIC RIGHT-WHALE (_Balæna biscayensis_,
+Eschricht), after Capellini.]
+
+The Right-Whale is believed by Eschricht and Reinhardt to bring forth
+its single young one (rarely two) about the end of March or beginning
+of May, and the time of gestation to be thirteen or fourteen months,
+so that it will bring forth only every other year; Scoresby considers
+that they go eight or nine months, and bring forth in February or
+March.[24] The young one is supposed to be suckled for twelve months,
+during which time the baleen is gradually developed. In disposition,
+the Greenland Whale is timid and retiring; the chief danger in its
+capture arises from its rapid descent when harpooned; the line is then
+carried out with such speed that, should it foul or all run out and
+not be immediately cut, the boat will be upset or carried under water.
+Capt. David Gray estimates the speed of a struck or scared Whale at
+about eight miles an hour, and the ordinary speed at about four miles,
+whether sounding or along the surface. It has never been known to
+attack a boat, but accidents sometimes happen if approached too closely
+in its death “flurry,” which is said to be very terrible to witness.
+Its fondness for its young is such that if the “sucker” be killed the
+old one readily falls a victim, and the whalers do not fail to avail
+themselves, for their own advantage, of this amiable trait in its
+character.
+
+
+THE ATLANTIC RIGHT-WHALE.
+
+Until recently it was believed that a Whale formerly common in
+the temperate waters of the North Atlantic was identical with the
+Right-Whale of the Arctic seas, of which we have just given an account,
+but Professors Eschricht and Reinhardt have successfully shown, as
+stated in the previous article, that such is not the case, the habits
+of the two animals, as well as the localities frequented by each, being
+totally distinct. They have, therefore, described the more southern
+form as a distinct species, under the name of _Balæna biscayensis_, or
+the ATLANTIC RIGHT-WHALE, the “Sarde” of the French, “Nordkaper” of the
+Dutch, and “Sletbag” of the Iceland whalers of former days.
+
+As early as the twelfth century, long before the whale-fishery was
+prosecuted in the Arctic seas, a brisk trade was carried on by the
+Basque fishermen from the Biscayan ports. That this fishery must have
+been of considerable importance, in a mercantile point of view, there
+can be no doubt, from the numerous references to be met with in early
+records; for instance, in 1261, a tithe was laid upon the tongues of
+all Whales imported into Bayonne, where they formed a much-esteemed
+article of food, and in 1338 a duty of £6 a Whale on those brought
+into the port of Biarritz was relinquished by Edward III. to Peter de
+Puyanne for services rendered; these and other like records extant show
+that for a long period this branch of industry was briskly prosecuted.
+Gradually, however, the Whales became more and more scarce, and the
+hardy Basque seamen, after following their prey to Newfoundland and
+Iceland, shortly after the discovery of Spitsbergen in 1596 found their
+all-but-lost occupation suddenly revive; the “Sletbag” was left behind,
+but the home of the true Greenland Whale, a much more valuable animal,
+was for the first time invaded, and that species, which then abounded
+in the seas surrounding Spitzbergen, speedily became the object of the
+whalers’ attack; many vessels were fitted out for its pursuit which
+carried Biscayan harpooners, the crews, also, generally consisting, in
+part, of these hardy seamen.
+
+So recently as the close of the last century, the Atlantic Right-whale
+was not infrequent in the North Atlantic; it was regularly caught on
+the coast of Nantucket, and occasionally by the American Whalers on the
+coast of Iceland; it has, however, now become very rare. Professors
+Eschricht and Reinhardt thus summarise the distinctive characters of
+the “Sletbag,” “Sarde,” or “Nordkaper,” so far as they have been able
+to glean from all the sources accessible to them, and consider the
+species identical with their _B. biscayensis_:--
+
+ 1. “That it was much more active than the Greenland Whale, much
+ quicker, and more violent in its movements, and, accordingly, both
+ more difficult and more dangerous to catch.”
+
+ 2. “That it was smaller (it being, however, impossible to give an
+ exact statement of its length), and had much less blubber.”
+
+ 3. “That its head was shorter, and that its whalebone was,
+ comparatively speaking, much thicker, but scarcely more than half
+ as long as that of the Greenland Whale, being, however, still much
+ longer than that of even the very largest Fin-Whale, although the
+ ‘Sletbag’ itself probably scarcely attained to half the length of the
+ last-named.”
+
+ 4. “That it was regularly infested with a Cirriped belonging to the
+ genus _Coronula_, and that it belonged to the temperate Northern
+ Atlantic as exclusively as the Greenland Whale belonged to the icy
+ Polar Sea, so that it must be considered as equally exceptional when
+ either of these species strayed into the range of the other, and,
+ moreover, that in its native sea it was to be found farthest towards
+ south in the winter (namely, in the Bay of Biscay, and near the coast
+ of North America, down to Cape Cod), while in the summer it roved
+ about in the sea round Iceland and between this Island and the most
+ northerly part of Norway.”[25]
+
+In addition to the British Right-Whales mentioned at the commencement
+of the previous article, which may almost with certainty be referred
+to this species, I am enabled, through the kindness of my friend,
+Captain David Gray, of Peterhead, to record two other instances of the
+occurrence of the Atlantic Right-Whale in British waters. With regard
+to the first case, Captain Gray was good enough to obtain for me the
+independent testimony of two old men, James Webster and John Allan,
+both of whom are still living at Peterhead, and were witnesses of the
+events which they relate. The two statements coincide so remarkably,
+making allowance for the lapse of so many years, that it is only
+necessary to give one. James Webster, 85 years of age, remembers
+Greenland Whales coming into South Bay of Peterhead: at that time he
+would have been about 10 years of age [Jno. Allan says “it was in 1806
+or 1807, same year as the new parish church was opened;” this was in
+1806, and agrees with Webster’s statement that he was 10 years old at
+the time]. Remembers them being an old Whale and a sucker. Saw five
+boats go out after them; as far as he recollects, thinks it was the
+month of October [“in the summer-time,” Allan]. They struck the old
+Whale, and put three harpoons into her, then they struck the sucker
+and killed it; brought the sucker ashore and flenched it at the South
+Quay. [Allan says “they killed the young Whale, and flenched her at the
+South Quay: she, having sunk, it was two or three days after, before
+they got her in.”] After they had three harpoons in the old Whale, she
+went twice up into the head of the Bay, going so far that she turned
+the sand up, and then she stove two of the boats, and broke Mackie’s,
+one of the harpooners, legs. [Allan does not remember the name of the
+injured man, and thinks only one boat was stove.] After this, the Whale
+took a run, and went out of the Bay, blowing blood. They followed her
+as fast as they could, they cut two of the boats from her, and left her
+towing one boat with their Jack blowing, after taking the crew out of
+her, and in this condition the Whale went out of sight, and they never
+saw or heard of her again. Allan says that when she went round the
+South Head, a heavy sea being on at the time, and darkness coming on,
+the boats cut and let her go, leaving the boat which was stove, fast
+to the Whale, the flag still blowing, and that she went out to sea and
+was never seen again. Capt. Gray adds that “Capt. Wm. Volum, of the
+‘Enterprise,’ and Capt. Alex. Geary, of the ‘Hope,’ both took part in
+the chase, and in that year the ‘Hope’ returned from Greenland on 30th
+June, and the ‘Enterprise’ on 30th July; consequently, it must have
+been some time after the latter date that the Whales came into the
+Bay; probably Webster is right when he names October.”
+
+The second instance referred to by Captain Gray came under his own
+observation. Whilst taking a walk round the “Heads,” one Sunday morning
+before church, to the best of his recollection early in October, 1872,
+“I saw,” says Captain Gray, “a Greenland Whale within half a mile of
+the rocks off the South Head; its appearance and movements were exactly
+the same as those I have seen in Spitsbergen waters.” Accustomed, as
+Captain Gray has been for many years, to watch the appearance and
+actions of the northern species of Right-Whale, in the Polar seas, it
+seems impossible for a man of his great experience to have mistaken any
+other species of Whale for one of the _Balæninæ_.
+
+Of course, there still remains the question as to whether these Whales
+were the Greenland or Atlantic species, but I think the consideration
+of the circumstances under which they occurred, leaves no doubt what
+the reply must be. Captain Gray writes--“Until you began to question
+the identity of these Whales harpooned here in 1806, no one had ever
+had the smallest doubt of their being Greenland Whales,” and that had
+there been any marked difference in their appearance, it would have
+been at once noticed by such experienced men as those who captured
+the Whale at Peterhead; but he adds that “so far as the habits of
+the Greenland Whale are known, it is contrary to our experience that
+they should visit our shores at the season of the year at which these
+Whales were seen here, when we know that the Arctic Whale regularly
+disappears into the depths of the Polar ice towards the end of summer,
+where no ships or steamers can follow them.” It would naturally be
+expected that, towards the end of summer the Atlantic Whale would also
+be approaching the northern limit of its range, and this is precisely
+the season when all the Whales of this description, of which the date
+is given, appear to have occurred, except two in a much more southerly
+locality, (their proper winter habitat) shortly to be mentioned. That
+the Peterhead men did not speak of any marked difference in the Whale
+which visited their Bay and those they had just returned from pursuing
+in the Polar ice may perhaps be accounted for partly by the similarity
+of the two species, and partly by their not having killed the adult
+individual; whilst the restless activity of the latter may possibly be
+due, not only to the presence of its young one, but, in part, to the
+superior activity of the Atlantic species, which is said to render it
+so much more dangerous and difficult to catch.
+
+But it may be said that if there be such a species, having a range,
+which in summer extends from the entrance of Davis’ Strait to Iceland
+and the North Cape, why are they not occasionally met with by the
+whalers in crossing the Atlantic to and from their more northern
+fishing grounds? Although such an encounter with a creature confessedly
+of rare occurrence would be in the highest degree improbable, still
+here again, through the kindness of Capt. Gray I am able to say that
+such encounters have taken place, and could we know the experience of
+all the whalers who have crossed the Atlantic, perhaps other instances
+might be put on record. Captain David Gray’s father told him that while
+mate to his father (Capt. David Gray’s grandfather), when crossing the
+Atlantic on the homeward voyage from Davis’ Strait, the vessel ran into
+a Greenland Whale (as he supposed it) and that he was anxious to lower
+some boats and go after it, but that his father would not allow him to
+do so, there being too much sea running at that time. This again would
+be in the summer season. It seems probable that not being aware of the
+existence of a Southern species of Right-Whale, or in consequence of
+the high sea which was running at the time, the Grays did not observe,
+or, at least, failed to mention, the peculiarities which distinguish
+the Atlantic species. But I am indebted to Capt. Gray for other
+instances of the occurrence of this species not far from Cape Farewell,
+and in at least one case the species was identified, the observer being
+aware of the existence of the Atlantic Whale, and the circumstances
+apparently favourable for close observation. On the 1st May, 1868,
+Capt. Alexander Murray, now commanding the S.S. “Windward,” at that
+time trading to South Greenland, in the “Sir Colin Campbell,” saw near
+Cape Farewell, several Right-Whales, close enough to distinguish their
+different features and general appearance. Capt. Murray remarks that,
+“they are a shorter Whale than the Greenland and much flatter in the
+crown;” he also noticed “Barnacles and grass near the blow-holes,” and
+states that from conversations he has had with American shipmasters
+employed in hunting these Whales, that these parasites are always
+present in this species, whereas the Greenland Whales are as invariably
+free from them. Capt. Murray adds that in 1867 three American whalers
+came into Cumberland Gulf, one having six, one three, and the other
+two Atlantic Whales on board, all of which were taken in the summer,
+a little to the eastward of Cape Farewell; and, finally, Capt. Gray’s
+brother, who commands the Hudson Bay Company’s Steamer, “Labrador,”
+told him that in June, 1879, he saw two of these Whales in lat. 57 N.
+and long. 33 W.; they were close alongside, and the weather at the time
+calm: they went away in a south-westerly direction. It would seem,
+indeed, that this species is not at all an infrequent summer visitor to
+the open sea, lying to the east of Cape Farewell.
+
+Two recent instances of the occurrence of this species on the eastern
+side of the Atlantic are on record, both of which were met with in
+winter, and in the warmer latitudes of the Bay of Biscay and the
+Mediterranean Sea. On the 17th of January, 1854, a young one with its
+mother appeared in the harbour of St. Sebastian; the mother escaped,
+but the little one was caught, and a drawing of it made by Dr. Monedero
+(reproduced in Bell’s ‘Brit. Quad.,’ 2nd Edit. p. 387); the skeleton
+was preserved for the museum of Pampeluna, thence it was removed
+by Prof. Eschricht in 1858 to the Copenhagen Museum, for which he
+purchased it. Also, on the 9th February, 1877, a Whale was captured
+in the Gulf of Taranto, which has been referred to this species, and
+these, I believe, are the only specimens which have been taken in
+European waters of late years; it seems very probable, however, that
+the “Black-Whale” of the temperate shores of N. America (the _B.
+cisarctica_ of Cope) is identical with _B. biscayensis_, and that,
+although extinct on the eastern side of the Atlantic, individuals from
+the American waters occasionally find their way into the European
+seas, where the race formerly existed as a native. The skeleton of
+the Taranto specimen is now in the Museum of Comparative Anatomy of
+the University of Naples, and M. F. Gasco states positively that
+“both the Taranto Whale and that of Philadelphia (_B. cisarctica_,
+Cope) belong to the species _B. biscayensis_, of Eschricht, which,
+for several centuries was pursued with avidity--I was going to say
+exterminated--throughout the temperate regions of the North Atlantic,
+first by the Basques, and then successively by the Saintongeois, the
+Normans, the Dutch (who called it _Nordkaper_), the Danes, Norwegians,
+English, and Americans.”[26] The cervical vertebræ in the British
+Museum, which form the type of Gray’s _Halibalæna britannica_ are also
+believed to belong to this species.
+
+Dr. Gray did not recognize _Balæna biscayensis_ as a good species,
+and accounted for the absence of the Right-Whales, formerly found in
+British waters, from the disturbed state of the seas, owing to the
+great increase in traffic of ships, and especially steam-vessels,
+which, he said, “appears to restrict their visits, and especially
+their breeding, more to the Arctic portion; thus some Whales, which
+were formerly said to be common on the coast of Britain, as the
+Right-Whales, no longer visit this country.” Eschricht, however, as
+before stated, has clearly shown that the habits of the northern
+Right-Whale and localities frequented by them have remained unchanged
+for many years, as proved by the record kept at the whaling-stations
+established by the Danish government on the west coast of Greenland.
+
+It is worthy of remark, that in the Southern ocean there are said to be
+two species of Right-Whale, one _Caperea antipodorum_ (Gray), not found
+further north than 40° south latitude; the other, _Eubalæna australis_
+(Gray), found as near the equator as 20° south latitude.
+
+The illustration at p. 60 is a reduced copy of the coloured plate
+in Capellini’s account of the Taranto Whale (_‘Della Balena di
+Taranto,’ G. Capellini, Bologna_, 1877), the original of which was a
+carefully-executed water-colour drawing, made from the animal itself.
+
+
+_BALÆNOPTERIDÆ._
+
+
+THE HUMP-BACKED WHALE.
+
+The next family, _Balænopteridæ_, is represented by two genera,
+_Megaptera_ and _Balænoptera_. Like the Right-whales, they all have two
+blow-holes, but may readily be distinguished by having the throat and
+belly curiously marked with longitudinal furrows, like the ribs in a
+worsted stocking: they also possess a well-defined dorsal fin.
+
+The HUMP-BACKED WHALE, _Megaptera longimana_ (Rudolphi), the only
+member of the first genus known to occur in the British seas, has
+been recorded at least three times; first at Newcastle in September,
+1839, again in the estuary of the Dee, in 1863, and in Wick Bay,
+Caithnesshire, in March, 1871. Capt. Gray tells me they are not
+uncommon off the east coast of Scotland in summer, and that he has
+known several captured off Peterhead, three having been brought in
+in one season. It is possible other examples may have been mistaken
+for Rorquals, from which this species may at once be distinguished
+externally by the great length of its flippers, which are white and
+very conspicuous.
+
+Herr Collett says that this species is met with every spring, on the
+northern coast of Norway, particularly in the Varanger Fjord; although
+generally occurring in small numbers, it is occasionally found in great
+quantities. On one occasion a steam vessel was surrounded by them
+as far as the eye could see, and great care had to be used to avoid
+running against them. South of the polar circle, he says it only occurs
+in small numbers.[27] In August, 1880, Capt. Gray saw vast numbers
+of these Whales about one hundred miles N.E. of Iceland; the sea, he
+states, seemed to be quite full of them as far as he could see from the
+mast-head. They were accompanied by a small species of “Finner,” with a
+white band across the fin (_B. rostrata_).
+
+The total length of the animal is about 45 to 50 feet, its baleen is
+black, and the flippers, which are white and notched at the edge, from
+10 to 14 feet in length.
+
+
+THE COMMON RORQUAL.
+
+To the genus _Balænoptera_ belong the Rorquals or Fin-whales, the
+first species of which is the COMMON RORQUAL, _Balænoptera musculus_
+(Linn.), the _Balænoptera boops_ of Bell’s first edition, and _Physalus
+antiquorum_ of Gray. This is a much more active animal than the
+Right-whale; it is difficult of approach, and, upon being harpooned,
+such is the velocity with which it shoots through the water that the
+danger is very great; Scoresby mentions one which took out 480 fathoms
+of line in about one minute. In addition to this, the whalebone is
+short and of little value, and the yield of oil small; it is therefore
+avoided by the whalers, as more dangerous than profitable, and if
+struck at all, it is most likely a case of mistaken identity. From
+the port of Vadsö, however, the capture of this, and the species
+immediately preceding and following, is now successfully effected by
+means of an explosive shell or harpoon, which kills them at once. This
+fishery was established about the year 1865, by Herr Svend Foyn, from
+Tonsberg, and is still very successfully prosecuted, as many as 50
+Whales being obtained each summer; they are towed into Vadsö, where the
+blubber is refined and the carcase made into manure.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 14. COMMON RORQUAL (_Balænoptera musculus_, Linn.)]
+
+The habitat of the Common Rorqual is the temperate Northern seas,
+from the Mediterranean, which it sometimes enters, to the 70° north
+latitude, and sometimes even farther north still. Nordenskiöld, in the
+‘Œolus,’ last saw Finners on the 18th May, 1861, in lat. 75° 45′, the
+temperature of the water being between 2·50° and 3·8° C., and they were
+not again seen until the return of the expedition in September, in 78°
+north latitude, the temperature of the water being then about 3·8° C.
+He remarks, “It is probable that ‘Finners’ never live in colder water
+than this, and that the northern limit of their distribution coincides
+with sea of this temperature. It has to be kept in view, however, that
+this boundary line lies several degrees further to the north in summer
+than in winter.”[28]
+
+The range of this group is very great, and, according to Andrew
+Murray, it would appear that one or more of the Balænopteridæ is
+found over the whole world, although it is by no means certain that
+any particular species has a very wide geographical range. _Megaptera
+longimana_, which occurs in the North Sea, was also supposed to have
+been met with at the Cape, but Dr. Gray has pointed out differences
+in the cervical vertebræ of an individual from that locality, which
+he considers constitute distinct specific characters; on the other
+hand, a Fin-whale from Java so closely resembles our _Balænoptera
+laticeps_ that Professor Flower, after the most careful examination and
+comparison almost bone by bone, hesitates to pronounce it distinct,
+and only separates it provisionally. In our own seas this species is
+of frequent occurrence, more especially on the Scotch coast, where
+it appears in the early autumn, attracted by the shoals of herring
+which abound there at that season. In feeding, the Rorquals are not
+so restricted to minute marine animals as the Right-Whale, but devour
+large quantities of fish of various sizes, from herrings up to cod. In
+the stomach of the Newcastle Humpbacked Whale (the species mentioned
+immediately before the present one) were found six cormorants, but a
+seventh, found in its throat, was supposed to have caused its death by
+choking it. The blowing is accompanied by a loud noise, which, on a
+still night, may be heard at a considerable distance. It was formerly
+supposed that in “blowing” the Whale ejected from its nostrils a very
+considerable quantity of water, which might be seen to spout up into
+the air like a fountain; and in the performance of this remarkable feat
+they were generally depicted. Beale, however, in his ‘Natural History
+of the Sperm Whale,’ as early as 1838, showed that this is not the
+case, and the truth of his observations is now generally acknowledged.
+The power so to eject water taken into its capacious mouth is, of
+course, impossible, the blow-hole being in direct communication with
+the lungs, and not with the cavity of the mouth, nor would it be of
+any service to the Whalebone-Whales, as the very purpose of the baleen
+is to form a screening apparatus through which the water is ejected,
+leaving its minute prey behind; and in the toothed Whales it would not
+be required. What appears like a jet of water is, in reality, dense
+vapour--in fact, the breath issuing from the lungs of the animal,
+highly charged with moisture, which becomes condensed upon exposure
+to the atmosphere. It often happens, too, that the Whale lets off the
+imprisoned air just before the blow-hole reaches the surface of the
+water, or that a wave passes over it at the moment of respiration,
+the water is thus dashed aside by the blast, and, probably, some of it
+really carried up into the air, thus heightening the deceptive effect.
+
+This species, when adult, reaches the length of about 70 feet, the
+upper part is black, the throat and belly white and plaited, the
+flippers black. The baleen is short and slate colour, veined with
+streaks of darker shade, but growing lighter towards the inner edge.
+
+Dead Whales, when stranded on the shore, after floating long at sea,
+are generally greatly distended with gas, which generates rapidly
+in the tissues after decomposition has set in; in such an inflated
+condition only a very imperfect conception can be formed of the true
+proportions of the vast beast. There is frequently, also, a great
+protrusion of membrane from the mouth, arising from the same cause, and
+other appearances in the male animal, due to the pressure of gas in the
+abdominal cavity are generally faithfully portrayed in old books of
+Natural History.
+
+A Whale of this species, taken off the North coast of Scotland, in
+April, 1880, was purchased by an enterprising individual in Birmingham,
+to which town it was conveyed by rail, and there exhibited: probably,
+this was the greatest distance from the sea at which an entire
+Cetacean, 63 feet in length, had ever been seen.
+
+The figure of this species is copied, by kind permission of Professor
+Flower, from the illustration to his paper in the ‘Proceedings of the
+Zoological Society of London’ for 1869, p. 604, _et. seq._
+
+
+SIBBALD’S RORQUAL.
+
+SIBBALD’S RORQUAL (_Balænoptera sibbaldii_, J. E. Gray; also
+_Sibbaldius borealis_, Gray, and _Physalus latirostris_, Flower), has
+several times been met with in British waters, particularly on the
+east coast of Scotland. It is the largest of this gigantic family,
+measuring from 80 to perhaps 100 feet in length. One seen by Herr Foyn
+he estimated at the enormous length of 133 English feet! The famous
+“Ostend Whale,” which was found floating dead in the North Sea, in
+1827, and taken into Ostend, belonged to this species; its skeleton
+was long exhibited in this country, and afterwards in America. Dr.
+Gray says it is now in St. Petersburg, and gives the total length
+as 102 feet; as, however, several of the vertebræ are missing, the
+exact length is uncertain. Professor Turner gives the length of a
+specimen stranded in the Firth of Forth as 78 feet 9 inches, and the
+girth behind the flippers about 45 feet: this animal was gravid, but
+notwithstanding this fact, the bulk must have been enormous.
+
+Herr Rt. Collett, in his ‘Norges Pattedyrfauna,’ gives a very full
+account of this species, as observed by him on the Norwegian coast.
+In June, 1874, he had the opportunity of visiting Herr Svend Foyn’s
+establishment for whale-catching, at Vadsö, and in addition to being
+enabled to examine three individuals of this species in a fresh state,
+received much information as to their habits from Herr Foyn and the men
+engaged in the fishery. This Whale, from its colour, is known by the
+fishers as the “Blue Whale,” and appears to have its home in winter
+in the open seas, between the North Cape and Spitsbergen. By the end
+of April or beginning of May it approaches the coast, entering the
+larger Fjords towards the end of the latter month, to feast upon the
+enormous quantities of _Thysanopoda inermis_, then found there; it is
+also seen in summer along the coast from Loffoden to the North Cape,
+and further to the eastward. When the wind is on the land or in any
+stormy weather, it seeks the open sea. Varanger Fjord is the favourite
+hunting-ground for this species, and in the last few years the average
+number taken there has been thirty; in 1874, as many as 42 were taken:
+it leaves the Fjord, however, should stormy weather set in. No specimen
+examined by Herr Collett, or Professor Sars, had taken any other food
+than _Thysanopoda inermis_, and Herr Foyn and his catchers are all of
+opinion that they do not eat fish. To obtain the little Crustacean on
+which they feed and which is found congregated in separate masses,
+the Whale passes backwards and forwards with its mouth open, till
+the cavity is well filled, it then closes its capacious jaws upon
+the contents. Herr Collett found two or three barrels of these small
+crustaceans in the stomach of a Blue Whale which he examined, and was
+told that a large one would consume as much as ten barrels.
+
+The female appears, as a rule, to be longer than the male; the young
+are born about the autumn, one appears to be the usual number, but two
+young ones have more than once been seen with the same old female.
+
+This species may be known by its low dorsal fin, black baleen, and long
+flippers, which are black above and whitish below: this should be borne
+in mind, as it is not at all improbable that some, at least, of the
+enormous cetaceans which are occasionally reported from the North of
+Scotland, belong to this species; so very unsatisfactory, however, are
+the reports which appear in print, that it is rarely a single feature
+is mentioned by which the species may be determined.
+
+
+RUDOLPHI’S RORQUAL.
+
+RUDOLPHI’S RORQUAL (_Balænoptera laticeps_, J. E. Gray) is a small
+species which may readily be mistaken for the Lesser Rorqual. A Whale
+stranded at Charmouth in February, 1840, and described by Mr. Yarrell,
+under the name of _Balænoptera boops_, in the proceedings of the
+Zoological Society for that year, is believed to have been of this
+species, but the skeleton, although prepared at the time, is supposed
+to have been sold and converted into manure. The same individual is
+recorded under the name of _B. tenuirostris_, in the Mag. of Nat.
+History, iv., 1840, p. 342, by Mr. R. H. Sweeting. Very little is known
+about the history or distribution of this species; the flippers are
+entirely black above, wanting the white band found in the next species,
+and the baleen is believed to be black.
+
+
+LESSER RORQUAL.
+
+The next and last of the Whalebone-Whales which we know to have
+occurred in the British Seas is the LESSER RORQUAL (_Balænoptera
+rostrata_, Fab.; _Rorqualus minor_, Knox), (Fig. 15). Many individuals
+of this species have been obtained on various parts of the coast,
+from Cornwall to the North of Scotland. On the coast of Norway it is
+frequently met with, and is there called the “Bay-Whale,” from its
+habit of entering bays and estuaries; this habit the natives take
+advantage of for its destruction. Stretching a strong net across the
+inlet, they cut off its escape, and put a cruel and often protracted
+end to its existence with harpoons and arrows, the poor Whale sometimes
+lingering from eight to fourteen days. This species is also known as
+the “Summer-Whale,” and does not appear to be so strictly a northern
+species as the Balænopteridæ generally are: it is believed, like the
+Common Rorqual, to have been taken in the Mediterranean. A Whale of
+this species, taken at Mevagissey, in Cornwall, at the end of April,
+1880, was conveyed to London, and there exhibited in the Old Kent Road.
+
+The Lesser Rorqual, from its small size (not exceeding 30 feet), is
+not liable to be mistaken for any other species except the preceding
+(Rudolphi’s Rorqual), and from that it may be distinguished by the
+broad white band across its black flipper; the baleen also is nearly
+white, which is another good distinction. The figure of this species
+is copied from the illustration to an article by Messrs. Carte
+and Macalister, on the Anatomy of _Balænoptera rostrata_, in the
+‘Philosophical Transactions’ of the Royal Society for 1868, vol. clviii.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 15. LESSER RORQUAL (_Balænoptera rostrata_, Fab.)]
+
+In the table on the next page I have endeavoured to give the most
+striking external peculiarities of our British _Mystacoceti_. They are
+easily remembered, and will be useful in identifying specimens, should
+no authority be at hand. The table also indicates the external points
+to be observed by a person not acquainted with this class of animals,
+and is most serviceable to enable others to identify doubtful specimens.
+
+
+ TABLE OF DIFFERENCES OF BRITISH MYSTACOCETI (WHALEBONE WHALES).
+
+ +------------------------+---------------+---------+-----------------+
+ | | COLOUR. | | |
+ | SPECIES. + ------+-------+Belly and| Flippers. |
+ | | Upper | Under | Throat. | |
+ | | Part. | Part. | | |
+ +------------------------+-------+-------+---------+-----------------+
+ | _Balæna mysticetus_, | Dark | Throat| Smooth | Black |
+ |Greenland Right-Whale | grey | white | | |
+ | | | | | |
+ | | | | | |
+ | | | | | |
+ | _Balæna biscayensis_, |Uniform|Uniform| Smooth | Black |
+ | Atlantic Right-Whale | black | black | | |
+ | | | | | |
+ | | | | | |
+ | _Megaptera longimana_, |Black | Black | Plaited | Wholly white,|
+ | Humpbacked Whale | | and | (plicæ) |about 12 ft. long|
+ | | | white | |and notched at |
+ | | | | |the edge |
+ | | | | | |
+ |_Balænoptera musculus_, |Black | White | Plaited | Black |
+ | Common Rorqual | | | | |
+ | | | | | |
+ | | | | | |
+ | | | | | |
+ | | | | | |
+ | | | | | |
+ |_Balænoptera sibbaldii_,|Black | Slate | Plaited |Dark above, |
+ | Sibbald’s Rorqual | | grey | | White beneath, |
+ | | | | | 12 feet or more|
+ | | | | | long |
+ | | | | | |
+ |_Balænoptera laticeps_, |Black | White | Plaited | Upper part |
+ | Rudolphi’s Rorqual | | | | black |
+ | | | | | |
+ |_Balænoptera rostrata_, |Black | White | Plaited |Black, with |
+ | Lesser Rorqual | | | | broad band of |
+ | | | | | white across |
+ +------------------------+-------+-------+---------+-----------------+
+
+ +---------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ | | | BALEEN. | |
+ | SPECIES. | Dorsal |----------+------------+ Total |
+ | | Fin. | Length. | Colour. | Length. |
+ | | | | | |
+ +------------------------+--------+ ---------+------------+-----------+
+ | _Balæna mysticetus_, | None |Long and | Blackish | 50 or 60 |
+ |Greenland Right-Whale | | narrow; | grey | feet |
+ | | | 10 or 12| | |
+ | | | feet | | |
+ | | | | | |
+ | _Balæna biscayensis_, | None |Shorter | ... |40 feet (?)|
+ | Atlantic Right-Whale | | than the| | |
+ | | | above | | |
+ | | | | | |
+ | _Megaptera longimana_, |Very low| Short | Black |About |
+ | Humpbacked Whale | | | | 50 feet |
+ | | | | | |
+ | | | | | |
+ | | | | | |
+ |_Balænoptera musculus_, |Distinct| Short |Slate |About 70 |
+ | Common Rorqual | | | colour-- | feet |
+ | | | | shaded | |
+ | | | | lighter to| |
+ | | | | inner | |
+ | | | | edge | |
+ | | | | | |
+ |_Balænoptera sibbaldii_,|Very low| Short |Rich | 80 to 100 |
+ | Sibbald’s Rorqual | | | black | feet |
+ | | | | | |
+ | | | | | |
+ | | | | | |
+ |_Balænoptera laticeps_, | ? | Short | Black (?) | 30 or 40 |
+ | Rudolphi’s Rorqual | | | | feet |
+ | | | | | |
+ |_Balænoptera rostrata_, | High | Short | Yellowish | 25 to 30 |
+ | Lesser Rorqual | | | white | feet |
+ | | | | | |
+ +------------------------+--------+----------+------------+-----------+
+
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 16. Sperm Whale (_Physeter macrocephalus_, Linn.)]
+
+
+
+
+ODONTOCETI (TOOTHED WHALES).
+
+_PHYSETERIDÆ._
+
+
+The second sub-order into which the Cetacea are divided, is the
+_Odontoceti_, or Toothed Whales. In this section, baleen is never
+present, but well-developed teeth are found in one or both jaws of
+the adult; in some species they are very numerous; sometimes, though
+rarely, deciduous. The blow-hole is single, and the skull generally
+asymmetrical, or not precisely alike on both sides of the medial line.
+Professor Flower divides the _Odontoceti_ into three families, one of
+which, the _Platanistidæ_, as already said, is found only in India
+and South America: the other two, _Physeteridæ_ and _Delphinidæ_, are
+represented in our Fauna by about fifteen species.
+
+Of the _Physeteridæ_, four genera are represented in the British fauna
+by four or five species; namely, one _Physeter_, the Sperm Whale; two
+_Hyperoodon_, the common Beaked Whale, and a doubtful species called
+the Broad-fronted Beaked Whale; one _Ziphius_, Cuvier’s Whale; and one
+_Mesoplodon_, Sowerby’s Whale.
+
+
+SPERM WHALE, OR CACHELOT.
+
+By far the most conspicuous species of this interesting group is the
+SPERM WHALE, _Physeter macrocephalus_ (Linnæus), which rivals the
+Right-Whale in commercial importance, and in the value of its products.
+This species has a very wide geographical range, having been found
+in almost every sea between lat. 60° north and 60° south. The attempt
+has been made, I think unsuccessfully, to show that the Sperm Whale of
+the Southern Hemisphere is distinct from that of the northern; there
+seems, however, no reason, at present, to doubt, although, of course,
+it may eventually be found otherwise, that the same species of Sperm
+Whale ranges over the whole of this vast tract of ocean. North of
+about 40° it appears to be only a straggler, and although the Arctic
+seas are almost always stated by authors to be its head-quarters, very
+few well-authenticated instances of its occurrence farther north than
+Scotland are on record; Lilljeborg excludes it from his account of the
+Scandinavian Cetacea, but Herr Collett says that within the last 100
+years, at least two individuals of this species have been stranded
+on the Norwegian coast, and that Professor Sars, during a stay in
+Loffoden, received information which convinced him that one was seen
+there in the summer of 1865.
+
+From the middle of the sixteenth to the middle of the seventeenth
+century, the stranding of individuals of this species on the coast
+of Great Britain, and, indeed, of other countries in Europe from the
+Netherlands to the Mediterranean, was by no means a rare occurrence;
+these were generally solitary males, but occasionally small “schools”
+were met with, as in July, 1577, in the Scheldt, where three were
+taken; also, at Hunstanton, in Norfolk, in 1646, mentioned below.
+
+Of its occurrence on the British coast there are numerous instances;
+in all cases, however, they are believed by Andrew Murray to have been
+stragglers, “which have rounded Cape Horn (they have never been known
+to double the Cape of Good Hope) or unpromising colonies, for they are
+becoming scarcer and scarcer in more than their due proportion.”[29]
+Eight or ten individuals of this species have occurred on the coast of
+Scotland between the years 1689 and 1871 (Alston, ‘Fauna of Scot.’, p.
+18).
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 17. Chair in Great Yarmouth Church, formed from the
+basal portion of the skull of the Sperm Whale.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 18. Back view of the same.]
+
+In the church of St. Nicholas, at Great Yarmouth, is the basal portion
+of a skull of this animal, which has been converted into a chair: it
+formerly stood outside the church, and of course, as it was an object
+of wonder, it was relegated to the powers of darkness, and _christened_
+(?) the “Devil’s Seat;” it has, however, now been admitted into mother
+church, and stands beside the north-west door under the clock. In the
+churchwardens’ accounts for 1606 there is a charge of 8s. for painting
+this chair, which clearly proves its antiquity. In a letter to Sir
+Thomas Browne (Wilkins’ edit., 1852, editor’s preface to “Pseudodoxia,”
+vol. i. p. lxxxi.), Sir Hamon L’Estrange writes that in June, 1626, a
+Whale, afterwards referred to by Sir T. Browne as a Sperm Whale (vol.
+iii. p. 324), was cast upon his shore or sea-liberty, “some-tyme parcel
+of the possessions of the Abbey of Ramsey, &c.” The same author, in his
+account of the “Fishes found in Norfolk and on the Coast,” says, “A
+Spermaceti Whale of 62 feet long [came on shore] near Wells, another
+of the same kind twenty years before at Hunstanton [the one referred
+to by Sir H. L’Estrange]; and not far off, eight or nine came ashore,
+and two had young ones after they were forsaken by the water.” The
+Whale mentioned by Sir H. L’Estrange came on shore in 1626; twenty
+years after would give 1646 as the date of the Wells specimen; and
+in December of that year, according to Booth’s “History of Norfolk,”
+published in 1781 (vol. ix. p. 33), “A great Whale was cast on the
+shore here [at Holme-next-the-Sea], the wind blowing strongly at the
+north-west, 57 feet long, the breadth of the nose-end eight feet, from
+nose-end to the eye 15½ feet; the eyes about the same bigness as those
+of an ox, the lower chap closed and shut about four feet short of the
+upper; this lower chap narrow towards the end, and therein were 46
+teeth like the tusks of an elephant; the upper one had no teeth, but
+sockets of bones to receive the teeth: two small fins only, one on
+each side, and a short small fin on the back; it was a male ...; the
+breadth of the tail, from one outward tip to the other, was 13½ feet.
+The profit made of it was £217 6s. 7d., and the charge in cutting it
+up and managing it came to £100 or more.” It seems probable that a
+“school” got bewildered in the shallow waters of the Wash, and that the
+individual of which Booth gives such an excellent description, formed
+one of the same party as the eight or nine mentioned by Sir T. Browne.
+In May, 1652, Mr. Arthur Bacon writes to Sir T. Browne about the Sperm
+Whale cast on shore at Yarmouth, but the actual date of the occurrence
+is not given. Since these ancient records, many others have occurred
+at intervals, singly or in small parties, on various parts of the
+coast; the last instance, I believe, being in July, 1871, when one was
+stranded on the shore of the Isle of Skye.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 19. SKELETON OF THE SPERM WHALE (after Flower).
+
+s, Spermaceti Cavity; n, Nasal Passage, in dotted line; b, Blow-hole.]
+
+Of the osteology of the Sperm Whale, Professor Flower has given an
+exhaustive description in a paper published in the ‘Transactions’
+of the Zoological Society, vol. vi., and of its habits a very
+interesting account is given by Thomas Beale, who, in the capacity of
+surgeon on board ships employed in the South Sea fishery, had unusual
+opportunities of observing this remarkable animal. He published a
+book entitled ‘The Natural History of the Sperm Whale,’ to which I am
+largely indebted for what I shall have to say about this species.
+
+The colour of the Sperm Whale is black above and grey beneath, the
+colours gradually shading into each other. The full-grown male is about
+sixty feet long; the females are much smaller and more slender than the
+males. The head, which constitutes more than one-third of the whole
+of the animal, presents a very remarkable appearance, the truncated
+form of the snout looking as though it were cut off at right angles
+to the body: at the upper angle is situated the single blow-hole. The
+juncture of the head with the body is the thickest portion, and the
+body decreases little in size till the “hump,” which is situated in
+the place of the dorsal fin, is reached; from this point it rapidly
+diminishes to the tail. The flukes of the tail are from twelve to
+fourteen feet in breadth, and the two flippers each about six feet
+long. The under jaw is pointed, and about two feet shorter than the
+upper; it is furnished with about twenty-five large conical teeth on
+each side; but the number is not constant, nor is it always the same
+on each side. In the upper jaw are no visible teeth, but those of the
+lower jaw shut into corresponding depressions in the upper. The tongue
+is small, and, like the lining of the mouth, of a white colour. The
+upper part of the head, called the “case,” contains the “spermaceti,”
+which upon the death of the animal granulates into a yellowish
+substance. Beale says that a large Whale not unfrequently contains a
+ton of spermaceti. Beneath the “case” is situated the “junk,” which
+consists of a dense cellular mass, containing oil and spermaceti. The
+blubber is about fourteen inches thick on the breast, and in most
+other parts of the body from eight to eleven inches. By the whalers
+this covering is called the “blanket.” With regard to the apparently
+ungainly head of the Sperm Whale, Beale remarks as follows:--“One of
+the peculiarities of the Sperm Whale, which strikes at first sight
+every beholder, is the apparently disproportionate and unwieldy bulk of
+the head; but this peculiarity, instead of being, as might be supposed,
+an impediment to the freedom of the animal’s motion in its native
+element, is, in fact, on the contrary, in some respects, very conducive
+to its lightness and agility, if such a term can with propriety be
+applied to such an enormous creature; for a great part of the bulk of
+the head is made up of a thin membranous case, containing, during life,
+a thin oil, of much less specific gravity than water, below which is
+again the junk, which, although heavier than the spermaceti, is still
+lighter than the element in which the Whale moves; consequently, the
+head, taken as a whole, is lighter specifically than any other part of
+the body, and will always have a tendency to rise at least so far above
+the surface as to elevate the nostril or “blow-hole” sufficiently for
+all purposes of respiration; and more than this, a very slight effort
+on the part of the fish would only be necessary to raise the whole of
+the anterior flat surface of the nose out of the water. In case the
+animal should wish to increase his speed to the utmost, the narrow
+inferior surface, which has been before stated to bear some resemblance
+to the cutwater of a ship, and which would, in fact, answer the same
+purpose to the Whale, would be the only part exposed to the pressure
+of the water in front, enabling him thus to pass with the greatest
+celerity and ease through the boundless track of his wide domain.[30]
+When swimming at ease, the Sperm Whale keeps just below the surface
+of the water, and goes at about three or four miles an hour; but on
+an emergency it is able to attain a speed of ten or twelve miles an
+hour: it then progresses by means of powerful lateral strokes of its
+tail, and alternately rises and sinks at each stroke. In progressing
+in this manner, the blunt anterior surface of the head never presents
+itself directly to the water; the animal’s body being in an oblique
+position, it is only the angle formed by the inferior surface which
+first presents itself, and this, which Beale likens to the “cutwater”
+of a ship, offers the least possible amount of resistance.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 20. SKULL OF SPERM WHALE.]
+
+When undisturbed, the Sperm Whale rises to the surface to breathe about
+once every hour. Beale says the regularity with which every action
+connected with its breathing is performed is remarkable; the time
+occupied differs slightly in each individual, but each one is minutely
+regular in the performance of every action connected with respiration,
+so that the whalers know how long it will remain beneath the surface
+before reappearing to renew its supply of air. A full-grown “bull,”
+he says, remains at the surface ten or eleven minutes, during which
+he makes sixty or seventy expirations; after which he disappears, to
+return again to the surface in one hour and ten minutes. The blowing
+is not accompanied by any sound, and notwithstanding the wonderful
+accounts of its roarings and bellowings, the Sperm Whale may be said
+to be an absolutely silent animal. The females and young males are
+gregarious, but are found in separate herds or “schools,” as they
+are called. A “school” will sometimes consist of five or six hundred
+individuals. The herds of females are always accompanied by from one to
+three large “bulls;” but the full-grown males are said to be generally
+solitary in their habits, except on certain occasions, when it is
+supposed they are migrating from one feeding-place to another. The
+majority of those which occur on our coast are these solitary males;
+when they visit us in herds, as mentioned by Sir Thomas Browne, they
+are all probably females or young males. The “bulls” are very fierce
+and jealous, and fight fiercely. The females show great attachment to
+each other and to their young, so much so that, one being wounded, the
+others of the herd remain and fall a comparatively easy prey. The young
+males, on the other hand, are very wary and difficult of approach,
+and should one be attacked, the others immediately take the alarm and
+retreat. The female produces one young one, rarely two, at a time, and
+breeds at all seasons of the year. Their senses of sight and hearing
+are very acute, and after being once unsuccessfully attacked, they are
+very difficult and dangerous to approach.
+
+The food of the Sperm Whale consists almost entirely of Cephalopode
+Mollusks (cuttlefish), although at times, when feeding near the shore,
+it has been known to take fish as large as salmon. How it contrives to
+capture such active prey as fish seems difficult to conceive. Beale is
+of opinion that the Whale sinks to a proper depth in the sea, where
+remaining as quiet as possible, and opening wide its mouth, the prey
+are attracted by the glistening white colour of its lining membrane,
+curiosity leading them to destruction; for no sooner have a sufficient
+number entered his mouth than the Whale rapidly closes his under jaw,
+and they are made prisoners, and swallowed.
+
+The pursuit of the Sperm Whale is attended with much greater danger
+than that of the Greenland Whale, and Beale gives many instances
+in which, in his own experience, boats were stove in and men lost;
+stories of fighting Whales, he says, are numerous, and probably much
+exaggerated; one, known as “Timor Jack,” is said to have destroyed
+every boat sent against him, till at last he was killed by approaching
+him from several directions at the same time, his attention thus being
+diverted from the boat which made the successful attack. Another fish,
+known as “New Zealand Tom,” destroyed nine boats successively before
+breakfast, and when eventually captured, after destroying many other
+boats, many harpoons from the various ships which had attacked him were
+found sticking in his body. There is one well-authenticated instance of
+a vessel being attacked and destroyed by a Sperm Whale: the American
+whale-ship _Essex_ was attacked by one, which, first passing under the
+vessel, probably by accident, came in contact with her keel and carried
+it away: then turning and rushing furiously upon the ship, the Whale
+stove in her bow; so serious was the breach that the vessel speedily
+filled and went down. Most of the crew were away in their boats at the
+time, but those on board had just time to launch their one remaining
+boat before the vessel sank. The boats made for the coast of Peru, the
+nearest land, many hundreds of miles distant; one of them was picked up
+drifting at sea, and three of the crew, who were found in it in a state
+of insensibility, were the only survivors of the ill-fated vessel.
+
+In addition to the sperm and oil, this species yields another product
+which is, or was, very valuable, although it is the result of disease,
+and one would imagine a very uninviting substance--I refer to
+_Ambergris_, the origin and composition of which was so long a puzzle
+to the learned. This substance is now well known to be a concretion of
+the indigestible portions of the Cuttlefish, which form the food of
+the Sperm Whale. The nucleus of the mass is generally the horny beaks
+of these creatures, and the substance itself is found in the intestines
+of the Sperm Whale, or on the shores of the seas frequented by this
+species: no other Whale is known to be subject to these bezoars. It
+was formerly believed that the origin of ambergris was in some way
+connected with the sea, and when it was afterwards found in Whales,
+the fact was simply attributed to their having swallowed it. Sir
+Thomas Browne writes of the Sperm Whale which came on shore at Wells,
+in 1646:--“In vain was it to rake for ambergriese in the paunch of
+this leviathan, as Greenland discoverers and attests of experience
+dictate that they sometimes swallow great lumps thereof in the sea;
+insufferable fœtor denying that inquiry; and yet if, as Paracelsus
+encourageth, ordure makes the best musk, and from the most fœtid
+substances may be drawn the most odoriferous essences; all that had
+not Vespasian’s nose (_Cui odor lucri ex re qualibet_) might boldly
+swear here was a subject fit for such extractions” (vol. i., p. 356).
+It was not until 1783, in a paper read before the Royal Society by Dr.
+Swediaur, that a scientific account of the origin of ambergris was made
+known. At the present time its medical virtues, which were formerly
+considered very great, are altogether at a discount, and the only use
+to which it is applied is in the preparation of perfumery.
+
+The South Sea whale-fishery was long prosecuted by the Americans before
+the British ships took part in it, from 1771 to 1775 Massachusetts is
+said by McCulloch to have had 121 vessels in this trade; about the
+beginning of the American war, however, the English also sent out
+ships, and in 1791 had 75 vessels engaged in the South Seas. The number
+of British ships, as with those employed in the northern fisheries,
+varied considerably, influenced probably by the varying amounts of
+bounty offered by the Government, but never exceeded 75; in 1815 they
+had fallen off to 22; in 1820 they again rose to 68, from which they
+gradually fell to 31 in 1829, all of which sailed from the port of
+London. Beale sailed from London, in 1831, in the “Kent,” returning in
+the “Sarah and Elizabeth,” both of which vessels belonged to Thomas
+Sturge. The duration of the voyage was from two to four or even five
+years, the average of 199 voyages being three years and three months,
+and the yield of oil, 169 tons per voyage. At the present time no
+British vessels are engaged in the South Sea trade, which has again
+reverted to the Americans.
+
+I have said very little about the method of pursuit and capture of
+this species, and of the Right-Whale, because it is a subject in
+which I take no pleasure; those who wish to know how these peaceful
+and highly-organised giants are approached, and how they behave when
+terrified and smarting under the harpoon and whale-lance, can pursue
+the subject _ad nauseam_ in the pages of Scoresby, Beale, and others;
+the sickening process of “flensing” and disposing of the blubber is
+described with equal minuteness. The halo of romance with which some
+authors seek to surround the whale-fishery, is, doubtless, in a great
+measure due to the solitary and distant fields of operation, whether
+it be in the frozen regions of the north, or the vast and trackless
+oceans of the south, but its stern reality is prosaic enough. The
+occupation is one of hardship and danger, but the remuneration when
+successful is large in proportion, and I can hardly conceive, under any
+circumstances, of men inflicting the fearful amount of suffering which
+every “full” whale-ship, or in a still greater degree every “full”
+sealer, represents. Science is constantly adding to our resources, and
+it is sincerely to be hoped that ere long substitutes may be found
+for animal oil and whalebone which will supersede their use in the
+few processes in which they are still requisite: should this be long
+delayed, it is to be feared that the Seals and Whales, at least of
+the northern seas, will soon cease to exist. In the meantime, it is
+gratifying to find that it is from the sealers and whalers themselves
+that the demand for the better regulation of the trade has emanated,
+and the name of Captain David Gray, of Peterhead, stands prominent
+amongst those who have urged upon the governments of this and other
+countries concerned, such regulations as shall insure greater humanity
+in its prosecution, and prevent the wasteful destruction which,
+if continued, must speedily ruin a valuable source of commercial
+enterprise.
+
+Although so widely spread over the waters of the globe, possessing, I
+believe, a range greater than any other known mammal, it is only open
+and deep waters which can be said to be the home of the Sperm Whale;
+when found in shallow seas, its generally emaciated condition indicates
+the absence of its proper nourishment; and the readiness with which
+whole herds precipitate themselves stupidly upon the sands, shows how
+little they are acquainted with such objects. Mr. Andrew Murray makes
+some observations upon this subject, which are so interesting and so
+suggestive that I cannot resist making a long quotation.
+
+Speaking of those specimens which have now and then been cast ashore in
+the North Atlantic or in the English seas, he says: “They seem to be
+unprepared for, or not adapted for, shallow seas. Accustomed (perhaps
+not individually, but by hereditary practice or instinct) to swim along
+the coral islands of the Pacific within a stone’s throw from the shore,
+they cannot understand, their instinct is not prepared to meet, shallow
+coasts and projecting headlands. If they were habitual residents in
+our seas, they must either be speedily extirpated, learn more caution,
+or be developed into a new species.” ... Mr. Murray further says: “I
+observe that almost every place that has been above mentioned as a
+favourite resort of the Sperm Whales, although not out of soundings,
+has claims to be considered the site of submerged land. The islands in
+the Polynesia, which are its special feeding-ground, are the beacons
+left by the submerged Pacific continent. In pure deep seas animal life
+is usually scarce, and the absence of breeding-ground is probably the
+chief cause of it; but this only applies to a certain kind of animals,
+those which require a bottom on which to deposit their spawn; but there
+are many which do not require this. The spawn of some floats about
+unattached; for others a frond of weed is sufficient attachment; and
+it has occurred to me that the distribution of the Sperm Whale may in
+some way be connected with the geological antecedents of the ocean it
+inhabits. I think it not improbable that the site of a submerged land
+may swarm with life, which originally proceeded, or was dependent on
+it, long after it had been in the deep bosom of the ocean buried. The
+Sargasso seas, which swarm with _Eolidæ_ and _Crustacea_, are examples
+of this life; it is not invariably either present or absent in deep
+water, and it is its presence or its absence which is instructive.
+Those animals which required a bottom to spawn upon may have died out
+or been developed into others which do not; and those which do not
+require such a support may have multiplied correspondingly. In one of
+the maps in Lieutenant Maury’s book, already cited, there is a space
+of sea opposite the western coast of South America, and lying between
+Patagonia and New Zealand, marked ‘Desolate region, distinguished
+by the absence of animal or vegetable life’;--no Sperm Whales
+here--nothing for them to feed upon--and no symptoms, either by banks
+of Sargasso or coral islets, of any land ever having existed there.
+There is no apparent reason why this place, except from some special
+cause peculiar to itself, should be more desolate than any other in the
+same latitude--than the deep sea on the east side of Patagonia, for
+example. I can imagine that, if the bottom of the sea should subside
+gradually, where animal life had once abounded, animal life--not that
+animal life, but animal life due in some way to it--might continue
+to linger over it long after it had passed beyond the depth at which
+it could practically have any effect upon the animal life above it;
+but if a part of the circumference of the globe has always been under
+water, before and ever since the creation of life, no life is likely
+to be found on that spot, because it has never had a starting-point
+of life from which to begin; and, as already said, a slender barrier
+stops the spread of species, and species would certainly not spread to
+a spot where there was nothing for them to feed upon. Again, animal
+life could not begin to feed upon animal life till vegetable life had
+previously prepared the way, by providing food for the animals which
+were to furnish food for others; and vegetable life could not begin to
+grow without a foundation of land, accessible either above or below
+water. The total and constant absence of all life at any particular
+spot appears to me, therefore, to furnish a presumption that there has
+never been dry land or shallow water there. Whether the continuance of
+deep water in one spot for some interminably long time might not have
+the same effect is another question, which, whatever way it may be
+answered, would not affect my explanation of the cause of the absence
+of the Sperm Whale from such spots.”[31]
+
+The woodcuts (figs. 17 and 18), representing the chair in Yarmouth
+Church, which is formed of part of the skull of an individual of this
+species, are from the ‘Purlestrations of Great Yarmouth,’ by Mr. C. J.
+Palmer.
+
+
+THE ZIPHIOID WHALES.
+
+The sub-family _Ziphiinæ_, which follows next, is, perhaps, the most
+remarkable of the whole of this interesting order. The _Ziphioid_
+Whales, as they are designated, are, for the most part, very rare, and
+until the commencement of the present century, with one exception, were
+known to science only from their numerous remains, found chiefly in the
+Crag deposits. Even so recently as 1871, Professor Flower, in a memoir
+of this group[32] speaks of their occurrence at irregular intervals,
+and at various and most distant parts of the world, to the number of
+about 30 individuals, in all cases solitary, and that their habits were
+almost absolutely unknown. Since that time, however, very considerable
+additions have been made to our knowledge of the group, and Professor
+Flower, in a second contribution on the same subject[33] made in 1877,
+states that “instead of being so rare as was then supposed, since the
+attention of naturalists resident in our colonies has been directed to
+the importance of losing no opportunity of securing such specimens as
+accidents of wind and waves may cast upon their shores, it has been
+proved that in the seas of the Southern Hemisphere these Whales exist
+in considerable numbers, both as species and as individuals, and that
+one species, at least [_Mesoplodon grayi_] is gregarious, having been
+met with in two instances in ‘schools’ of considerable numbers.” “The
+geographical distribution of the group,” adds Professor Flower[34] “has
+a very great interest in relation to that of many other Australian
+groups, both of vertebrates and invertebrates. Among the earliest known
+remains of Cetacea, in the Belgian and Suffolk Crags, _Mesoplodon_
+and closely-allied forms are most abundant. Up to a little more than
+ten years ago, the few stray individuals of _Mesoplodon bidens_
+occasionally stranded on the shores of North Europe, were supposed to
+be their sole survivors. Since that time it has been proved that they
+are still numerous in species, and even in individuals ... in the seas
+which surround the Australian continent, extending from the Cape of
+Good Hope on the one side, to New Zealand on the other, though beyond
+these limits no specimens have yet been met with. It is the history
+of the Marsupial Mammals, of _Ceratodus_, of _Terebratula_, and of
+numerous other forms.”
+
+The group is divided into four genera--_Hyperoodon_, _Berardius_,
+_Ziphius_, and _Mesoplodon_ (the second of which is not represented in
+our Fauna). Its members were formerly distinguished by the absence
+of functional teeth in the upper jaw, but, recently, a row of small
+teeth, of determinate number and definite form, has been discovered
+in many individuals of a species of _Mesoplodon_. The teeth in the
+lower jaw are always quite rudimentary, with the exception of one, or
+occasionally, two pairs. These may be largely developed, especially
+in the male sex, and are placed, generally, well forward. “They have
+a small and pointed enamel-covered crown, composed of true dentine,
+which, instead of surmounting a root of the ordinary character, is
+raised upon a solid mass of osteo-dentine, the continuous growth of
+which greatly alters the form and general appearance of the organ as
+age advances.” In _Mesoplodon layardi_ this little dentine cap is not
+larger than the portion of the tooth ordinarily shown above the gum,
+but the fang-like growth is so great that the tips of the “tusks” meet
+over the upper jaw, so that the animal is only able to open its mouth
+for a very short distance indeed. The form assumed in _Mesoplodon
+bidens_ will be seen in the figure of the head of that species, at p.
+104. The blow-hole is sub-crescentic, and a pair of remarkable furrows
+occurs in the skin of the throat, almost in the form of the letter V,
+the point directed forward. The skull presents a remarkable appearance
+in the genus _Hyperoodon_, caused by the enormous maxillary crests
+which produce the peculiar conformation of the head in the living
+animal, originating the trivial name “Bottle-head.” The food of the
+whole group is said to consist mainly of _Loligo_, commonly called
+“Squid,” and other Cephalopods which frequent the open sea.
+
+One very singular circumstance with regard to these creatures is that
+they never seem to be taken at sea, but, whenever procured, it is by
+their running themselves on shore. This, as before remarked with regard
+to the Sperm Whale, would seem to indicate that their natural habitat
+is the deep waters of the open seas, where shallows are unknown. The
+sand-banks which surround a sloping shore, of which they have had no
+experience, speedily prove fatal to them.
+
+
+BEAKED WHALE.
+
+The common BEAKED WHALE, or BOTTLE-HEAD (_Hyperoodon rostratum_,
+Chemnitz; _Hyperoodon butzkopf_, Lacépède), is of frequent occurrence
+in the North Atlantic, and generally visits our shores in autumn,
+sometimes ascending the estuaries of rivers: it has been taken several
+times at the entrance to the river Ouse. It is solitary in its habits,
+more than two being never met with in the same place, and in that
+case it is often the old female and her young one: the old male is
+said to be very shy and rarely secured. In September, 1877, an adult
+female, 24 ft. long, was taken in the Menai Straits; it was accompanied
+by another, probably its young one. Capt. Feilden met with what he
+believes to have been this species, just within the Arctic Circle;
+“each emission of breath was accompanied by a stentorian grunt, which
+closely resembled that of an elephant.”[35]
+
+The colour is black above, the under parts being lighter: the two teeth
+in the lower jaw are generally hidden in the gum. Its food consists of
+cuttlefish, the remains of great numbers of which have been found in
+its stomach.
+
+
+BROAD-FRONTED BEAKED WHALE.
+
+Another species of _Hyperoodon_, for which the name _H. latifrons_
+has been proposed, is by some supposed to exist. Scarcely anything is
+known about it as a species. “The principal distinctive characters of
+the skull lie in the great raised crests of the maxillary bones, which
+are very much thickened and flattened above, so as almost to touch
+one another, whereas, in _H. rostratum_, they are rather sharp-edged
+above, and separated by a considerable interval. In _H. latifrons_,
+these crests rise absolutely _higher_ than the occipital region of the
+skull, which is not the case in the common species.”[36] Individuals
+possessing these peculiarities have been taken three or four times
+on the British coast, and on one occasion, in Greenland. Another
+was stranded in 1873, at Hasvig, near Hammerfest, and identified by
+Professor Sars from its remains; its length was 30 feet (Norse), and
+the colour dark on the back, but lighter beneath.[37] It has, however,
+been suggested, with much probability, by Eschricht, that these
+individuals are, after all, only the males of the preceding species;
+for all the specimens with broad crests, of which the sex was noted,
+were males.
+
+
+CUVIER’S WHALE.
+
+CUVIER’S WHALE (_Ziphius cavirostris_, Cuv.; _Epiodon desmarestii_,
+J. E. Gray, ‘Cat. Seals and Whales’), another of this remarkable
+group, has been met with once on the coast of Shetland, and it, or
+its remains, have been found about five or six times in other parts
+of Europe, and also, it is believed, at the Cape of Good Hope, the
+east coast of South America, and New Zealand. Professor Turner is of
+opinion that the geographical range of _Ziphius cavirostris_ equals
+that possessed by the Spermaceti Whale.[38] In colour this species is
+believed to resemble Sowerby’s Whale; it has two teeth, one on each
+side of the lower jaw, close to the extremity.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 21. HEAD OF SOWERBY’S WHALE (_Mesoplodon
+sowerbiensis_, De Blainville).
+
+From Trans. Roy. Irish Acad.]
+
+Cuvier established the genus _Ziphius_ in 1825, from a fossil skull
+found on the coast of Provence in 1804, which he believed at the time
+to belong to an extinct animal.
+
+
+SOWERBY’S WHALE.
+
+One more British Ziphioid is known, SOWERBY’S WHALE (_Mesoplodon
+sowerbiensis_, De Blainville); it was first described from a specimen
+which came ashore at Brodie, Elginshire, in 1800, and has since been
+found three times in Ireland; there is also a skull in the Museum of
+Science and Art at Edinburgh, which belonged to a specimen believed to
+have been captured somewhere on the Scotch coast; the remains of five
+others are preserved in various Continental museums.
+
+Of the individual which came on shore on the coast of Kerry, in March,
+1864, Mr. Andrews has given a description in the “Transactions of the
+Royal Irish Academy,” for April, 1867. Fortunately, it came under
+the notice of Dr. Busteed, of Castle Gregory, who being interested
+in zoology, and aware of the great importance of the occurrence,
+photographed the head in several positions while it was yet fresh: Dr.
+Busteed’s photographs were reproduced in the Transactions of the Royal
+Irish Academy. The head had unfortunately been removed immediately
+behind the frontal portion of the skull, the base of which is lost,
+as are also the other parts of the skeleton. The total length of the
+animal was about fifteen feet, the two teeth largely developed and
+projecting like the tusks of a boar. On the under part of the throat
+the V-shaped furrow was very conspicuous. Sowerby’s specimen was
+coloured black above, and nearly white below. The skin was smooth like
+satin. “Immediately under the cuticle the sides were completely covered
+with white vermicular streaks in every direction, which at a little
+distance appeared like irregular cuts with a sharp instrument.”
+
+
+_DELPHINIDÆ._
+
+The remaining family, _Delphinidæ_, as before stated, is a very
+numerous one. It has ten representatives in the British fauna,
+contained in seven genera, the first of which, according to the
+arrangement I have adopted, is that of _Monodon_.
+
+
+THE NARWHAL.
+
+The NARWHAL (_Monodon monoceros_, Linn.) is a native of the Polar seas
+seldom leaving the ice; stragglers have occurred three times on the
+British coast, one in 1648 in the Firth of Forth, another came ashore
+alive at Boston, in 1800; the third was taken in Shetland in 1808.
+
+This species is very numerous in the frozen seas to the north of
+latitude 65°, and is remarkable for the enormous development in the
+male of the left canine tooth, which is projected forward in the form
+of a tusk or spear, reaching to the length of six or eight feet, while
+the right tusk remains abortive, and does not pierce the alveolus. The
+spear is of fine compact ivory, hollow for the greater part of its
+length, grooved spirally from left to right, along its outer surface,
+the spiral generally making five or six turns, but smooth at the end,
+and bluntly pointed. Although the right canine is rarely developed, a
+few examples have occurred in which both tusks were present; the female
+is very rarely furnished with this appendage.
+
+Mr. J. W. Clark, in a paper on a ‘Skeleton of Narwhal, with two
+fully-developed tusks,’[39] writes as follows:--“The skulls of the
+Toothed Whales are generally asymmetrical, being twisted more or less,
+usually towards the left. This peculiarity is especially observable in
+Monodon. One would expect it to be greatly exaggerated in the skulls
+of the males, where the left tusk alone is developed, and the left
+maxillary is, in consequence, very large, and the right proportionately
+small; but it does not seem to be affected by the absence or presence
+of the teeth. Female skulls, where neither tusk is developed, are
+equally twisted, and so are the bidental skulls ... the increased size
+of the right maxillary does not appear to affect the rest of the skull.”
+
+Mr. Clark enumerates eleven skulls of the Narwhal in which both tusks
+are developed; four at Copenhagen, and one each in the museum of
+Hamburg, Christiania, Amsterdam, Weimar, Hull, Paris, and Cambridge; to
+these must be added a twelfth, which was brought from Prince Regent’s
+Inlet, by Capt. Gravill, of the “Camperdown,” and is now in the Dundee
+Museum.
+
+Not long since I saw preserved in a country mansion, the tusk of a
+Narwhal measuring 7 ft. 5 in. long; it was carefully kept in a long
+case resembling a barber’s pole, and bore a ticket attached, which
+stated that it was “Bequeathed in 1561 by the Countess of ----, to her
+daughter ----.” No doubt at the time this formed a valuable bequest,
+as even royal and ecclesiastical dignitaries are said to have esteemed
+these strange objects (probably associated with the mythical unicorn),
+as “good against” poisons and fevers, and prized them accordingly. The
+use of this remarkable appendage appears very doubtful; it has been
+conjectured that it serves to stir up food from the bottom of the sea,
+in which case the female would be badly off without it; or that it is
+employed to keep breathing-holes open in the ice, and an instance is
+related in support of this view, in which hundreds were seen at an
+ice-hole protruding their heads to breathe, but it is not clear whether
+they made the hole for themselves, or whether they were attracted by
+it, particularly as there were numbers of White Whales with them. It
+seems certain, however, that the tusk, which is frequently found in a
+broken condition, is used for purposes of attack and defence. Like the
+horn of the stag, it is, no doubt, a sexual distinction.
+
+The Narwhal is very social in its habits, great numbers being often
+met with together; its food consists of cuttlefish and crustaceans.
+The length of the full-grown animal is about 16 feet, the upper parts
+gray, the sides and belly white, and the whole animal spotted with
+black and gray. The only authentic figure of the Narwhal with which I
+am acquainted is that given by Scoresby; this is so well known from
+frequent reproduction that it is not necessary to give it here.
+
+
+THE WHITE WHALE.
+
+The WHITE WHALE, or BELUGA (_Delphinapterus leucas_, Pallas), like the
+preceding species, is a native of the Polar seas, where it is common;
+it is abundant in the White and Kara Seas, and in the Gulf of Obi;
+on the coast of Norway it is occasionally met with. From Scotland,
+five individuals have been recorded, but it must be regarded as only
+an accidental straggler. On the east coast of America it is found as
+far south as the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where, as in the White Sea, it
+delights in ascending the mouths of large rivers.
+
+No English examples have been met with, but, in the British Association
+Report on the Fauna of Devonshire (1869, pp. 84 and 85) occurs the
+following passage. “Mr. H. P. Gosse writes:--‘On August 5th, 1832, I
+was returning from Newfoundland to England, and was sailing up the
+British Channel close to the land, when, just off Berry Head, I saw
+under the ship’s bows a large cetacean of a milky white hue, but
+appearing slightly tinged with green from the intervening stratum
+of clear water. It was about 16 feet long, with a round bluff head.
+It continued to swim along before the vessel’s head, a few yards
+beneath the surface, for about ten minutes, maintaining our rate of
+speed, which was five knots an hour, all which time I enjoyed from the
+bow-sprit a very good view of it. It could have been no other than the
+White Whale, the _B. borealis_ of Lesson.’” Mr. Alston also states that
+Mr. J. G. Gordon informed him that in June, 1878, “he saw a large white
+cetacean, presumably of this species, in Loch Etive.”
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 22. BELUGA, caught by the tail, near Dunrobin,
+Sutherlandshire.]
+
+In a communication to the Zoological Society of London,[40] quoting
+a letter from the Rev. Dr. Joass, of Golspie, Professor Flower thus
+describes the singular capture of one of these rare visitants to our
+seas:--“It was found close to the salmon-nets, near the Little Ferry,
+about three miles to the westward of Dunrobin, Sutherlandshire, at ebb
+tide, on Monday, June 9th, 1879, caught by the tail between two short
+posts, to which a stake-net was fastened; and a salmon, of 18 lbs.
+weight, which was supposed to have been the object of its pursuit,
+was found in front of it. It measured 12 ft. 6 in. in length. The
+tail was 34 inches across, and the flippers 17 inches long. It was a
+female [adult] and had twenty teeth in the upper jaw, and sixteen in
+the lower. the stomach contained a few flakes of fish, which, from
+their size and colour, might have been salmon.... I have heard since,
+that two days before its capture, it was seen off Cracaig by Brora
+fishermen, who were lying at their lines. At first they thought it was
+a human body; as it approached, _against the ebb_, they took it for
+a ghost!” On examining the skull of this specimen, Professor Flower
+discovered that, at some previous period of the animal’s existence,
+the atlas had been completely dislocated, “the whole of the surfaces,
+formerly in apposition, being now free from each other,” an injury to
+an aquatic animal as difficult to account for as it is to imagine the
+possibility of its surviving, but affording a remarkable instance of
+the creature’s recuperative power.
+
+The Whales exhibited at the Westminster Aquarium, in September, 1877,
+and again in May, 1878, belonged to this species; unfortunately they
+did not live to equal in docility and intelligence a specimen exhibited
+in America, which “learned to recognize his keeper, and would allow
+himself to be handled by him, and at the proper time would come and
+put his head out of the water to receive the harness” by which he was
+attached to a car in which he drew a young lady round the tank,--or
+to take his food. A specimen of _Delphinus tursio_, which was for a
+time with him in the same tank, is said to have been even more docile
+than this remarkable animal.[41] The adult Beluga is pure white, and a
+“school” of these animals “leaping and playing in the calm, dark sea,”
+is said to be a very beautiful sight. In summer the Greenlanders kill
+great numbers, extracting the oil and drying the flesh for winter use;
+in Russia, the prepared skin is much used for reins or other parts of
+harness requiring great strength and lightness; in this country, too,
+under the name of porpoise-hide, it is now extensively used, and the
+salted skins sell for from 3s. 6d. to 4s. 6d. per lb. The whale-ship,
+“Arctic,” of Dundee, brought home 600 skins from Davis Strait, in the
+season of 1880. The length of the full-grown animal is about 16 ft.,
+and its food consists of fishes, Crustacea, and Cephalapods.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 23. THE GRAMPUS (_Orca gladiator_, Lacép.)]
+
+
+THE GRAMPUS, OR KILLER.
+
+The common GRAMPUS, or KILLER (_Orca gladiator_, Lacépède), (fig. 23)
+is a well-known and widely-dispersed species, being found in both the
+North Atlantic and Pacific Seas. Andrew Murray says “the common Grampus
+tumbles through the heavy waves all the way from Britain to Japan,
+_viâ_ the North-west Passage.” In the British seas it is frequently met
+with, and has occurred in several instances on the coast of Norfolk.
+This species is very fierce, its appetite insatiable, and carnivorous
+in the strictest sense of the word; to the Greenland and White Whale,
+as well as to Porpoises and Seals, it is an implacable enemy, and
+follows them ruthlessly. Dr. Brown says, “the White Whale and Seals
+often run ashore, in terror of this cetacean, and I have seen Seals
+spring out of the water when pursued by it. The whalers hate to see it,
+for its arrival is the signal for every Whale to leave that portion of
+the ice.” Eschricht took out of the stomach of a Killer, 21 ft. long,
+which came ashore in Jutland, no less than thirteen common porpoises
+and fourteen Seals.
+
+The rounded, compact form of this species gives the idea of great
+strength and swiftness, and the beautifully-polished glossy black skin
+of the back contrasting with the equally pure and well-defined white
+of the lower parts has a very striking effect; over the eye there is
+a well-defined white spot. It is a very handsome species, but there is
+something in its appearance which seems to indicate its cruel nature.
+Thirteen or fourteen strong, slightly curved teeth are found on either
+side of both jaws; the flippers are broad and oval-shaped, the dorsal
+fin high and falcate, particularly in the male.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 24. _Pseudorca crassidens_ (Owen).]
+
+As my object is mainly that of assisting in the identification of
+casual visitants to our shores, rather than of giving anything like a
+history of the known British species of Cetacea, it may be desirable
+to mention here a very remarkable form, which, although it has never
+been known to occur in the flesh on our shores, was first made known
+to science from an imperfect skeleton found in a semi-fossil condition
+beneath the peat in a Lincolnshire Fen. To this Dolphin, “come back,
+as it were, from the dead,” and which forms a connecting link between
+the genus _Orca_ and the genera _Grampus_ and _Globicephalus_ (and
+which Owen had named _Phocœna crassidens_), Reinhardt gives the name of
+_Pseudorca crassidens_. On the 24th November, 1861, a large shoal of
+these dolphins made their appearance in the Bay of Kiel. The sailors
+succeeded in separating about thirty of them from the remainder, but
+all, with one exception, escaped. This was a female 16 feet long,
+which, after being exhibited at Kiel and other places, was bought for
+the Museum of the University of Kiel. In the summer of 1862, three
+other individuals, presumably from the same shoal, were thrown ashore
+on the north-western coast of Zealand. Of the general appearance of
+this creature the accompanying figure (24), copied, by kind permission,
+from Professor Flower’s translation of Reinhardt’s paper,[42] published
+by the Ray Society, will give an idea; the figure is from a photograph
+of the Kiel specimen, and is not in the original paper. The length is
+from 16 to 19 feet; of the colour no account is given, but, judging
+from the woodcut of the Kiel specimen, it appears to be uniformly
+shiny black. The number of teeth differs in individuals, but in this
+one it was from 9 to 10 on either side of the lower jaw, and 8 to 10
+in the upper. From the observations made by Reinhardt, he suggests
+a possibility that there may be “a difference in the sizes of the
+different sexes, and whether the females are not larger, but at the
+same time, perhaps, provided with a head comparatively smaller than
+that of the males.” It is very suggestive of how little we know of the
+inhabitants of the sea, that at least one vast shoal of a species known
+only from its sub-fossil remains should be roaming the seas only to be
+accidentally discovered when its members became entangled in shallows
+from which probably many never lived to extricate themselves.
+
+
+RISSO’S GRAMPUS.
+
+RISSO’S DOLPHIN (_Grampus griseus_, G. Cuvier; _Grampus cuvieri_, Gray,
+Ann. Nat. Hist., 1846) is a rare and little-known species, which has
+been met with four times on the south coast of England, and about
+eight times in France. In the ‘Transactions’ of the Zoological Society,
+for 1871, Professor Flower gives an account of an adult female which
+was taken in a mackerel-net, near the Eddystone Lighthouse, on 28th
+February, 1870, and which eventually was sent up to London. About a
+month later, a second specimen was received in London, the precise
+locality of which was not known, but it was probably from somewhere in
+the Channel. This was also a female, but a very young animal, and as
+the adult female first taken had recently given birth to a young one,
+it is quite possible that it may have belonged to her. On the 26th
+July, a male of the same species was captured alive at Sidlesham, near
+Chichester, and sent to the Brighton Aquarium, where it lived for a few
+hours only.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 25. RISSO’S DOLPHIN (_Grampus griseus_, G. Cuv.)]
+
+Risso’s Dolphin varies very considerably in its colouration. The
+Sidlesham specimen was bluish-black above, and dirty white beneath; in
+the adult female described by Professor Flower (from whose illustration
+our figure is, with his permission, copied), “the head and the whole
+of the body anterior to the dorsal fin was of a lightish grey,
+variegated with patches of both darker and whiter hue.... Behind the
+anterior edge of the dorsal fin the general colour of the surface,
+including the dorsal and caudal fins, was nearly black, though with
+a large light patch on the upper part of the side directly above the
+pudendal orifice. The middle of the belly as far back as the pudendal
+orifice, was greyish white.”[43] The most remarkable characteristic,
+however, was the presence, scattered over the body, of irregular light
+streaks and spots; these markings extended from the head to within
+about two feet from the tail; and presented a most singular appearance.
+In the young one the upper parts and sides of the body were almost
+black, and the lower parts nearly white, the junction between the two
+colours being very abrupt and sharp. “On each side of the body were
+six vertical whitish stripes nearly symmetrically arranged, and almost
+equidistant, being about six inches apart. They did not extend quite
+to the middle line of the body above, and were lost below in the light
+colouring of the abdomen.”[44] The length of the Sidlesham male was 8
+feet, that of the adult female 10 ft. 6 in.; in the former there were
+present four teeth on each side the lower jaw, in the latter three
+only on each side, and in the immature specimen there were present
+seven teeth, four on the right, and three on the left side; the teeth
+are always placed in the front part of the mandible, and in every
+specimen examined there has been an entire absence of teeth in the
+upper jaw. In general appearance, Risso’s Dolphin, more particularly
+the dark-coloured specimens, is said very much to resemble the next
+species (_Globicephalus melas_). Of its habits and distribution nothing
+positive is known, but from its visiting France and England in the
+spring or summer, M. Fischer concludes that this species “is migratory,
+visiting the shores of Europe in the summer, and passing in winter
+either to the south towards the coast of Africa, or to the west towards
+the American Continent.”[45]
+
+
+THE PILOT WHALE.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 26. PILOT WHALE (_Globicephalus melas_, Trail).]
+
+The PILOT WHALE (_Globicephalus melas_, Trail; _Delphinus melas_,
+Trail; _D. globiceps_, Cuv.; _D. deductor_, Scoresby), known in
+Shetland as the Ca’ing or Driving Whale, is a frequent, although a very
+uncertain, visitor in British waters. It is met with, according to
+Lilljeborg, in the North Sea and northern part of the Atlantic Ocean,
+occasionally as far north as Greenland; off the Orkney and Shetland
+Islands, and on the North-west coast of Norway, it frequently makes
+its appearance; and it has been found on the British coast as far
+south as Cornwall. In Bell’s ‘British Quadrupeds’ it is said that it
+also appears to enter the Mediterranean. This species is pre-eminently
+gregarious, and generally occurs in large herds, often numbering
+several hundreds. So strong is their habit of association that they
+follow the leading Whale like a flock of sheep, a habit of which the
+Orkney and Shetland Islanders are fully aware, and avail themselves to
+the full. When a herd appears in one of the bays, boats immediately
+put off, and if possible, get to seaward of them, then gradually
+approaching, with shouts and splashes, they urge the whole herd
+shoreward, and are generally successful in driving a large number of
+Whales into shallow water; but should the leader break through the line
+of boats, the probability is that no efforts the boats’ crews can make
+will prevent all its companions following. Bell gives many instances of
+large numbers of these animals being taken, the last of which, quoted
+from the ‘Zoologist’ for 1846, is, perhaps, the most extraordinary. It
+is there stated, “on newspaper authority,” that 2,080 were taken in
+Faroe in the previous year within six weeks, and that 1,540 were killed
+_within two hours_ in Quendall Bay, Shetland, on the 22nd September,
+1845.
+
+As it too frequently happens that the unfortunate cetaceans which fall
+into the hands of the fishermen are simply hacked to pieces, and die
+only from exhaustion arising from loss of blood, it is worthy of remark
+that, according to Herr Collett, of Christiania, in Norway they are
+readily killed by a rifle shot, in the throat, or under the breast.
+
+This species (fig. 26) is remarkable for its peculiarly rounded
+head,--hence its generic name; the flippers are long and pointed, the
+dorsal fin long and low; the teeth are about an inch in length, seldom
+all present in the adults, and the normal number, according to Bell,
+about twenty-four on either side each jaw; ten to twelve is, however,
+the more usual number present. The length of the adult is about
+nineteen or twenty feet, its colour glossy black, with the exception of
+a white stripe along the belly, which has a heart-shaped termination
+under the throat. Its favourite food is said to be cuttlefish. The
+figure is copied, with permission, from the ‘Transactions’ of the
+Zoological Society, vol. viii., pl. 30.
+
+
+PORPOISE.
+
+The COMMON PORPOISE (_Phocœna communis_, F. Cuv.; _Delphinus phocœna_,
+Linn.) is the best known of the Cetacea inhabiting the North Sea, being
+met with in abundance all round the British Isles, seldom occurring
+far from land, and often ascending large rivers for a considerable
+distance: it has been seen in the Thames as high as London Bridge.
+
+Nothing can be more interesting than to watch a shoal of these animals
+at sea, sometimes tumbling and gambolling under the bows of the vessel
+which is passing rapidly through the water, with as much ease as if
+she were motionless, or chasing each other playfully round and round
+the ship as she lies becalmed, their white bellies glistening in the
+clear sea, and frequently, apparently out of pure mad delight, leaping
+completely out of the water, returning to their native element with a
+most determined header. But it is not till seen in the glass-sided tank
+of the aquarium that the beauty, and even poetry of motion of these
+animals can be fully appreciated; swimming along in a series of gentle
+curves, they just bring the blow-hole to the surface, breathe without
+stopping, and continue the curve, till in due course they reach the
+surface again. This is repeated for the whole length of their spacious
+tank, or is varied by unexpected eccentricities, all indescribably
+graceful. Under these favourable circumstances for observation it is
+also clearly seen that the horizontal tail is the propeller which gives
+the motion; the alternate upward and downward pressure of this organ
+against the water evidently producing the graceful mode of progression
+which is so difficult to describe, but so easily understood when
+witnessed. The flippers are not used as propellers. When the animal
+is moving forwards they are laid back, against the body; but when it
+wishes to stop, they are stretched out at right angles to it, so as
+to offer a resistance to the water, and so arrest the onward motion of
+the animal. All this, although perfectly understood in theory before,
+strikes the beholder as a new and beautiful sight when first viewed in
+practice, from a stand-point, on a level with the animal itself, and as
+it were in its own element.
+
+The food of the Porpoise consists of fish, and it follows the shoals
+of herrings, &c., amongst which it commits great depredations; it has
+a taste for salmon, and is sometimes taken in the salmon-nets. The
+period of gestation is said to be six months, and it brings forth one
+young one at a birth; its colour is black on the back, shaded off
+to silver-grey on the belly, the whole skin beautifully smooth and
+polished. The teeth number about twenty-five on each side of either
+jaw, and are spatulate, with a contracted neck, unlike the usually
+conical teeth of the _Delphinidæ_. The length is four or five feet.
+The flesh of the Porpoise seems formerly to have been esteemed as an
+article of food, and is mentioned several times in the L’Estrange
+Household Book (1519 to 1578) and other similar records; it is said by
+one who has eaten it to be “excellent meat, dark in colour, and large
+in fibre, but of excellent flavour, very tender, and full of gravy.”
+
+
+THE COMMON DOLPHIN.
+
+The COMMON DOLPHIN (_Delphinus delphis_, Linn.), fig. 27, is not
+unfrequently met with in the seas surrounding the southern portion
+of the British Isles; but from the northern division of the kingdom,
+although it, doubtless, occasionally visits Scottish waters, there is
+no reliable record of its occurrence. This species, probably, often
+passes unrecognized. It may, however, be at once distinguished from
+the Porpoise by its attenuated beak, the head of the Porpoise being
+obtuse, and the beak altogether absent. It is a native of the temperate
+seas, and becomes scarcer as the north is approached. Van Beneden was
+not able to record it as frequenting the Belgian coast, but Lilljeborg
+says it is occasionally obtained on the coasts of Scandinavia, and Herr
+Collett has hardly any doubt that it occurs on the Norwegian coast
+as far north as Finmarken, and a large “school,” seen by Malmgren
+in April, 1861, in West-fjord, between the Loffoden Islands and the
+mainland, was referred by him, without hesitation, to this species.
+In Greenland it is said to be met with, but Professor Flower thinks
+it doubtful whether some species of an allied genus may not have been
+mistaken for it.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 27. COMMON DOLPHIN (_Delphinus delphis_, Linn.).]
+
+This is the true Dolphin of the Ancients, of which Professor Bell,
+in his ‘British Quadrupeds,’ says: “the mythological and poetical
+associations which belong to the Dolphin, its reputed attachment to
+mankind, its benevolent aid in cases of shipwreck, its dedication to
+the gods, and many other attributes expressive of the high estimation
+in which it was held in olden times, afford a striking example of
+how the unrestrained imagination of the ancients could raise the most
+gorgeous structures of poetry and religion upon the most slender
+basis.... It requires some stretch of the imagination to identify
+the round-headed creature which is represented in ancient coins
+and statues, with the straight sharp-beaked animal,” which is here
+figured. It is sad to destroy at one fell swoop all the romance which
+once surrounded this species; but Dr. Gray tells us that “the dying
+Dolphin’s changing hues” are not observed in a cetacean at all, but in
+a fish of the genus _Coryphæna_, which, although normally black, is
+stated by Mr. Couch (as quoted by Mr. Yarrell) to have changed to a
+fine blue whilst he was making a drawing of it. The food of the Dolphin
+consists of fish, cuttlefish, and crustaceans, and on the Cornish
+coast it makes its appearance in considerable numbers, according to
+Mr. Couch, in the month of September during the pilchard season. It is
+very social in its habits, and even more sportive in the water than its
+relative, the Porpoise. The illustration is copied from Reinhardt’s
+figure.
+
+Professor Flower thus describes a specimen taken in March, 1879,
+Mevagessey: “Instead of being simply black above and white below, as
+usually described, the sides were shaded, mottled, and streaked with
+various tints of yellow and grey, ... the under surface was of the
+purest possible white; perfect symmetry was shown in the colouring and
+markings on the two sides of the body.”[46] There is, probably, much
+variation in the disposal of the colour; in a beautiful drawing, in my
+possession, made by Mr. Gatcombe from a specimen taken at Plymouth, the
+colour is so disposed as to show two graceful waving lines, crossing
+each other about the centre of the animal’s body, forming a figure
+somewhat like an elongated figure eight. The dental formulæ vary from
+40/40 40/40 to 50/50 50/50, the numbers not always being equal, even on
+the different sides of the mouth of the same individual. The length is
+from 5 to 8 feet.
+
+
+BOTTLE-NOSED DOLPHIN.
+
+The BOTTLE-NOSED DOLPHIN (_Delphinus tursio_, Fab.; _Tursio truncatus_,
+Gray), fig. 28, appears to be found occasionally from the Mediterranean
+to the North Sea; it is by no means, however, a common species.
+Professor Flower says it “is rare in the Mediterranean, though Gervais
+gives several instances of its capture in the Gulf of Lyons. It
+probably has a more northern range than _D. delphis_; but, as in the
+case of that species, there is still much obscurity as to the exact
+limits of its distribution.”[47] A specimen was seen in January, 1873,
+in the fish-market at Algiers, by Mr. J. W. Clark, of Cambridge.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 28. BOTTLE-NOSED DOLPHIN (_Delphinus tursio_,
+Fabricius.)]
+
+Of the habits of this species very little is known: its colour is black
+above, shaded to white below, and its length from 8 to 12 feet; teeth
+from 21 to 25 on either side of each jaw, truncated when old. The
+figure is from a drawing of a nearly adult male, taken at Holyhead, in
+October, 1868, for which I am indebted to the kindness of Professor
+Flower.
+
+
+WHITE-SIDED DOLPHIN.
+
+The WHITE-SIDED DOLPHIN (_Delphinus acutus_, J. E. Gray;
+_Lagenorhynchus acutus_, Gray, Zool. Erebus and Terror), is a rare
+species, which has occurred in a few instances on the British coast;
+it is said, however, by Dr. A. R. Duguid, often to be seen about the
+Orkney Islands, but rarely secured. Its colour is black above and white
+below, between which runs a broad band of yellowish brown, about the
+centre of which, and surrounded by it, is a large oblong patch of pure
+white. The adult measures from 6 to 8 feet in length. A figure and
+description, by Dr. Duguid, taken from one of a herd of twenty landed
+at Kirkwall, on the 21st August, 1858, will be found in the ‘Ann. and
+Mag. of Nat. Hist.’ (3rd series) for August, 1864, vol. xiv., p. 133.
+
+
+WHITE-BEAKED DOLPHIN.
+
+The last species on the British list, the WHITE-BEAKED DOLPHIN
+(_Delphinus albirostris_, J. E. Gray; _Lagenorhynchus albirostris_, J.
+E. Gray, Zool. Erebus and Terror), is also of rare occurrence: it is a
+native of the North Atlantic, has occurred at the Faroe Islands, and
+on the coasts of Norway and Sweden, and Denmark, also at Ostend, but
+little is known of its habits. A Dolphin of this species was killed at
+Hartlepool in 1834, but not recognized at the time: the skull is now
+in the Cambridge Museum. This species was, I believe, first described
+as British by Mr. Brightwell, under the name of _D. tursio_, from a
+specimen taken off Yarmouth, in 1846. His paper, with a figure from a
+drawing made by Miss Brightwell, will be found in the ‘Ann. and Mag.
+of Nat. Hist.,’ first series, January, 1846, vol. xvii, p. 21. Another
+specimen was shot by Mr. H. M. Upcher, near Cromer, and will be found
+recorded by Dr. Gray in the same Magazine, for April, 1866, vol. xvii.,
+p. 312. A fourth, an adult male, 9 feet long, was taken at the mouth of
+the Dee, in December, 1862; and a fifth on the south coast, in 1871.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 29. WHITE-BEAKED DOLPHIN (_Delphinus albirostris_,
+J. E. Gray).]
+
+In September, 1875, a young female was taken off Grimsby, and in March,
+1876, a young male was captured off Lowestoft. The first-named of
+these latter formed the subject of a communication to the Zoological
+Society of London, by Dr. Cunningham, of Edinburgh, and the latter of a
+subsequent notice, by Mr. J. W. Clark, of Cambridge. Both papers will
+be found printed in the ‘Proceedings’ of the Zoological Society for
+1876, p. 679, _et seq._, and figures of the two specimens are given on
+the same plate. On the 24th August, 1879, a young female, the skull of
+which is now in the Norfolk and Norwich Museum, was landed at Yarmouth,
+and on the 22nd March, 1880, another young female was also landed
+at the same place, the exact locality in which it was taken being
+uncertain. On the 7th September, 1880, a young male, the first recorded
+Scotch specimen, was taken on the east coast, near the Bell Rock, thus
+realising the belief, expressed shortly before (‘Mammalia of Scotland,’
+_Nat. Hist. Soc. of Glasgow_, 1880, p. 23) by Mr. Alston, that it might
+be expected to occur in Scottish waters. The total length was 5 ft. 8
+in.
+
+Through the kindness of Mr. Clark, I am enabled to give a figure of
+the Lowestoft specimen. Mr. Clark’s figure differs considerably from
+Dr. Cunningham’s, both in outline and in the disposal of colour, being
+much more slender, and showing considerably less white; both, however,
+differ still more from Mr. Brightwell’s figure than they do from each
+other. A good figure of the adult animal is still a desideratum, that
+by Miss Brightwell being obviously incorrect. Mr. Clark’s specimen was
+glossy black on the upper part, and creamy white on the under; the
+upper lip white, with a black spot at the tip, and a few irregular
+pale grey cloudings on its surface; the coloration exceedingly
+beautiful, and such as no drawing could give an adequate idea of. The
+two last-named Yarmouth examples agreed very closely in all respects
+with Mr. Clark’s description. Mr. Brightwell’s specimen had the whole
+upper part and sides rich purple-black, the lips, throat, and belly
+cream-colour, varied by chalky-white. This specimen, an adult, measured
+8 ft. 2 in. in length, Mr. Clark’s 5 ft. 5½ in., and Dr. Cunningham’s
+4 ft. 2 in. Two others, also both young ones, measured respectively 4
+ft. 3 in., and 5 ft. The teeth vary in number, but are about twenty-six
+on either side each jaw; in one specimen, carefully examined by the
+writer, they were 26/24 26/24, several of the front teeth not having
+pierced the gum.
+
+In addition to those enumerated above, others are said to have occurred
+on the coast of Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and to have been seen
+off the Faroe Islands. It is singular that 5 of the 10 recorded British
+specimens should have been landed on the Norfolk coast.
+
+This species concludes the short list of the twenty-two British
+Cetacea, of which I have endeavoured to give a popular, but I hope, at
+the same time, so far as it is at present known, a reliable account;
+my principal object, as I stated in my introductory remarks, being to
+induce those residing in suitable localities to take up the study of
+this interesting family, and to assist in the identification of those
+specimens which from time to time are cast upon our shores.
+
+ NOTE TO PAGE 77, RUDOLPHI’S RORQUAL (_Balænoptera laticeps_, J. E.
+ Gray).--Professor Flower, since the brief account of this animal at
+ p. 77 was printed, has called my attention to the undoubted priority
+ of Lesson’s name for this species, _Balænoptera borealis_, which was
+ founded upon Cuvier’s “Rorqual du Nord”; he also points out that Van
+ Beneden and Gervais follow Lesson in this respect, and says that in
+ future it is his intention to do the same. As it is most important
+ to establish an uniform nomenclature, I do not hesitate to follow
+ so distinguished an authority, and now wish to supply the omission
+ as far as it is possible to do so. The species will, doubtless,
+ henceforth be known as _Balænoptera borealis_, Lesson, Complément des
+ Œuvres de Buffon, Cetacés.
+
+
+ JARROLD AND SONS, PRINTERS, LONDON AND EXCHANGE STREETS, NORWICH.
+
+
+
+
+ Cloth, 6s.; or in Half Morocco, 10s. 6d.
+
+ OBSERVATIONS ON THE FAUNA OF NORFOLK,
+
+ AND MORE PARTICULARLY ON
+
+ THE DISTRICT OF THE BROADS.
+
+ BY
+
+ THE LATE REV. RICHARD LUBBOCK, M.A.,
+ _Rector of Eccles_.
+
+ NEW EDITION,
+ WITH ADDITIONS FROM UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS OF THE AUTHOR, AND NOTES BY
+ THOMAS SOUTHWELL, F.Z.S.,
+ _Hon. Sec. to the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists’ Society; Author of
+ “Seals & Whales of the British Seas_;”
+ ALSO A MEMOIR BY
+ HENRY STEVENSON, F.L.S.;
+ AND AN APPENDIX CONTAINING NOTES ON HAWKING IN NORFOLK BY
+ ALFRED NEWTON, M.A., F.R.S., &c.
+ AND ON THE DECOYS, REPTILES, SEA FISH, LEPIDOPTERA, AND BOTANY
+ OF THE COUNTY.
+
+
+OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
+
+ “Lubbock’s volume, written five-and-thirty years ago, has long been
+ out of print and scarce; and the reliable nature of the information
+ which it affords has for some time rendered a new edition a
+ _desideratum_ with naturalists. A new edition has at length appeared,
+ edited by Mr. Thomas Southwell, of Norwich, who has made some
+ valuable additions of his own in the shape of notes on the existing
+ mammalia of Norfolk, and on decoys past and present in the county,
+ prefaced by a memoir of the author by Mr. Henry Stevenson, and
+ supplemented by some interesting notes on Hawking in Norfolk, from
+ the pen of Professor Newton.”--_The Field._
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ “In addition to the intrinsic merits of the book, of which we can
+ personally speak in the superlative degree as one of the most
+ pleasantly written of the many pleasant natural history books
+ our language is so rich in, describing, as it does, the ‘Broad
+ District’--a country unlike any other part of England, and a very
+ paradise to the botanist, entomologist, and ornithologist--this new
+ edition is edited by Mr. Thomas Southwell, the active Secretary of
+ the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists’ Society, whose full and accurate
+ knowledge of the natural history of Norfolk better fits him for the
+ task than any other man we know of.”--_Science Gossip._
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ “While Mr. Lubbock’s personal observations were chiefly directed
+ to the neighbourhood of the Broads, the editor has endeavoured
+ to make the work as comprehensive in its scope as possible, and
+ he includes the district known as Lothingland, between Lowestoft
+ and Yarmouth, which, though in Suffolk, belongs geographically to
+ Norfolk.”--_Midland Naturalist._
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ “We promise to those who have never yet read this book, a rare treat
+ from its perusal.”--_Zoologist._
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ “We can scarcely speak too highly of the way in which this volume
+ has been ‘got up,’ and the publishers have added such a map as has
+ never yet been executed of this county, showing, as it does, not only
+ the rivers and broads, and other principal pieces of water, but the
+ sites of heronries and decoys (used or disused), gulleries, and other
+ localities, having a special interest for Naturalists.”--_Norfolk
+ Chronicle._
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ “The ‘Fauna’ is a book which everyone should read who desires to know
+ something of the natural history of Norfolk.”--_Norfolk News._
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ “Absolutely reliable and authoritative as a work of reference, and
+ invaluable to every naturalist and ornithologist.”--_Live Stock
+ Journal._
+
+ JARROLD AND SONS, 3, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, LONDON;
+ AND LONDON AND EXCHANGE STREETS, NORWICH.
+
+
+ _Large 8vo., Cloth Boards, Seven Shillings and Sixpence._
+
+ Rambles of a Naturalist
+
+ IN
+
+ EGYPT AND OTHER COUNTRIES,
+
+ WITH AN ANALYSIS OF THE CLAIMS OF CERTAIN
+ FOREIGN BIRDS TO BE CONSIDERED BRITISH, AND OTHER
+ ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES.
+
+ BY J. H. GURNEY, JUN., F.Z.S.
+
+ JARROLD AND SONS, 3, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, LONDON;
+ AND LONDON AND EXCHANGE STREETS, NORWICH.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+[1] Dr. Robert Brown on the ‘Seals of Greenland.’ Reprinted, with
+additions, in the ‘Manual and Instructions for the Arctic Expedition,
+1875,’ from the _Proc. Zool. Soc._, 1868, pp. 405-440.
+
+[2] _Land and Water_, August 26th, 1875.
+
+[3] Dr. Brown’s ‘Seals of Greenland,’ _Proc. Zool. Soc._, June, 1868,
+reprinted in the ‘Arctic Manual,’ p. 67.
+
+[4] ‘History of North American Pinnipeds,’ by Joel Asaph Allen. U.S.
+Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, Miscellaneous
+Publications, No. 12, Washington Government Printing Office, 1880.
+
+[5] ‘Seal and Herring Fisheries of Newfoundland,’ pp. 32-34, as quoted
+by Allen, _l. c._, pp. 551-3.
+
+[6] _Land and Water_, May 9th, 1874.
+
+[7] Great diversity of opinion, however, exists upon this point, the
+Dundee sealers considering that the fishery should open a few days
+earlier, and that a time should be fixed for its closing, in order that
+too great a number of the old Seals may not be shot. The young Seals
+grow with great rapidity, and even a few hours make a marked difference
+in their condition; it seems, therefore, of the greatest importance
+that a time should be fixed for the opening of the fishery, which will
+ensure the young animals being in as forward a condition as possible,
+and that the nursing mother should be spared. It is said, also, that,
+in consequence of the number of females killed while nursing, the old
+dog Seals are vastly more numerous than the females, and that positive
+good is accomplished by some of them being killed off. One opinion,
+however, seems universal, which is, that not much good has resulted, at
+present, from the close time.
+
+[8] The Seal of the Caspian Sea was described as a variety of _Ph.
+vitulina_, by Pallas, and as a distinct species, by Nilsson, under the
+name of _Ph. caspica_. It is, however, notwithstanding its abundance,
+very little known, and may, probably, prove to be more nearly allied to
+the next species. The yearly average of this species taken in for the
+six years ending 1872, as given by Schultz, is 130,000.
+
+[9] _Proc. Zool. Soc._, 1868, p. 402.
+
+[10] _Journal of Anatomy and Physiology_, 1870, p. 260.
+
+[11] ‘Danish Greenland, its People and its Products,’ p. 123.
+
+[12] ‘Mammalia of the Outer Hebrides,’ _Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasgow_,
+1879, p. 95.
+
+[13] _Ph. grœnlandica_ was the only Seal met with by the Austrian
+Arctic Expedition, in the _Tegethoff_ in August, 1873, the ship then
+drifting in the ice in lat. 79° 31′, long. 61° 43′. Subsequently both
+this species and _Ph. barbata_ were met with about North lat. 81°.
+
+[14] ‘Seals of Greenland.’ Reprinted in ‘_Manual and Instructions for
+the Arctic Expedition_, 1875,’ p. 47.
+
+[15] A communication in _Land and Water_ for Dec. 20, 1879, p. 524,
+signed “R. M.,” states that about the 20th of June, 1879, a Walrus was
+seen off the west coast of Skye. “He was seen lying on a rock near
+the shore, on a fine calm evening, near enough to remove all doubt as
+to the identity of the animal.... The huge tusks were quite easily
+distinguished.” On being disturbed, it is said to have rolled into the
+water, and swam a short distance to another rock, on which it was seen
+to climb; after a little time it again took to the water, and was seen
+no more. As no names are given, it is impossible to investigate this
+report, or to judge what degree of importance should be attached to it.
+
+[16] Cook’s Last Voyage, vol. ii. p. 458, edition 1784.
+
+[17] ‘Some remarks on the Nat. Hist. of Franz Josef Land,’ by H. W.
+Feilden, F.G.S., &c.--a Paper read before the Norfolk and Norwich
+Naturalists’ Society, Dec. 28, 1880.
+
+[18] _Physalus_, _Benedenia_, and _Sibbaldius_, of Gray, are now
+rejected, I believe, by Prof. Flower.
+
+[19] _Zoologist_, 1877, p. 360.
+
+[20] McCulloch’s _Dictionary of Commerce_.
+
+[21] Space will not permit of more than a passing reference here, but
+much information as to the rise and progress of the whale-fishery
+will be found in McCulloch’s ‘Dictionary of Commerce,’ article
+“Whale-fishery;” Scammon’s ‘Marine Mammals of the North-western coast
+of North America;’ Starbuck’s ‘History of the American Whale Fishery;’
+Mr. C. R. Markham’s ‘The Threshold of the Unknown Region;’ Capt. A. H.
+Markham’s book above referred to; and above all in Scoresby’s excellent
+works, which have been extensively laid under contribution by nearly
+all subsequent writers--‘An Account of the Arctic Regions, with a
+History and Description of the Northern Whale-fishery’ (2 vols., 1820),
+and ‘A Journal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale-fishery,’ in 1822.
+
+[22] Blackstone mentions a curious old feudal law, to the effect “that
+on the taking of a Whale on the coasts, which is a royal fish, it shall
+be divided between the king and queen; the head only being the king’s
+property, and the tail of it the queen’s. ‘_De Sturgione observetur,
+quod rex illum habebit integrum: de balena vero sufficit, si rex habeat
+caput, et regina caudam._’ The reason of this whimsical division, as
+assigned by our ancient records, was, to furnish the Queen’s wardrobe
+with whalebone”!--Blackstone’s ‘Commentaries,’ 1783 edit., vol. i., p.
+223.
+
+[23] Owen, ‘Anat. of Vert.,’ iii., pp. 546 and 553.
+
+[24] Dr. Brown, in the paper before quoted, states that they couple
+from June to August, and bring forth in March or April. See also a note
+on ‘The Time and Manner of the Procreation of some Species of Whales,’
+in the ‘Zoologist’ for 1845, p. 1161.
+
+[25] ‘Recent Memoirs on the Cetacea, by Professors Eschricht, Reinhardt
+and Lilljeborg,’ edited by Prof. Flower, Ray Society, 1866.
+
+[26] ‘Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist.,’ 1878 (11), p. 495.
+
+[27] ‘Bemærkninger til Norges Pattedyrfauna,’ p. 100. (Særskilt Afryk
+af ‘Nyt Mag. for Naturvsk’) 1876.
+
+[28] ‘Arctic Voyages of Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld,’ 1858-1879, pp. 51-2.
+
+[29] ‘Geographical Distribution of Mammalia,’ by Andrew Murray, 1866,
+p. 211.
+
+[30] ‘Natural History of the Sperm Whale,’ p. 28.
+
+[31] ‘Geographical Distribution of Mammalia,’ pp. 211-13.
+
+[32] ‘Transactions’ of the Zoological Society, viii., p. 203.
+
+[33] _Ibid._ x., p. 415.
+
+[34] _Ibid._, p. 435.
+
+[35] _Zoologist_, 1878, p. 319.
+
+[36] Bell’s ‘Brit. Quad.’ p. 426.
+
+[37] Collett, ‘Norges Pattedyrfauna,’ p. 99.
+
+[38] ‘Zoology of H. M. S. Challenger,’ part iv., p. 29.
+
+[39] _Proc. Zool. Soc._, 1871, pp. 41-53.
+
+[40] _Proc. Zool. Soc._, 1879, pp. 667-9 (by which Society the above
+woodcut was kindly lent).
+
+[41] Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 3rd series, vol. 17, p. 312.
+
+[42] Read before the Royal Danish Society of Sciences, in 1862.
+
+[43] Trans. Zool. Soc., vol. viii, p. 3.
+
+[44] _l. c._, p. 13.
+
+[45] _l. c._, p. 18.
+
+[46] _Trans. Zool. Soc._, vol. xi., p. 2, with plate.
+
+[47] _Trans. Zool. Soc._, vol. xi., p. 5.
+
+
+
+
+ Transcriber note
+
+
+ Spelling and punctuation errors have been corrected.
+ Corrections listed in Errata have been applied to the text.
+ Italic text has been enclosed in underscores.
+ Bold text has been enclosed in equals.
+ Smallcap text has been capitalised.
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77840 ***
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