WHITE UIL\Ll'<; AM) NAKWrtAL. 19' 



one knew. I examined il and round it (o (litter from all the others then known here. Xot long 

 after it was announced that there was a White Whale on exhibition at the Aqnarial Gardens in 

 Boston ; that Mr. Cutting had brought alive from the Uiver Saint Lawrence a species that had never 

 been seen south of that river. Soon after I visited Boston and called to sec it. I pronounced it to 

 be identical with the unknown species taken at Provincetown. Ir, 1S75 or 1876 another was seen in 

 the harbor, but the boats could not get it." 



October 11, 1S75, two individuals, a cow about ten feet long and weighing 700 pounds approx- 

 imately, and a calf nearly as large as its mother, weighing about 500 pounds, were taken in the, 

 Yarmouth River by (Japt Benjamin Lovell. They were sold to the Boston Society of Natural 

 History. 1 



USES. Certain oil manufacturers from Cape Cod have agencies in Canada, from which they 

 obtain the materials for the manufacture of an excellent machine oil, sold under the name of 

 ' 1'orpoise- jaw oil." A large White Whale yields from eighty to one hundred gallons of ordinary 

 oil, besides the more precious head oil. Porpoise leather is made from the skins, a leather of almost 

 indestructible texture, and peculiarly impervious to water. From this the Canadian mail-bags are 

 made, and, to some extent, tourists' walking shoes. On our Alaska coast they are not unfrequently 

 taken, chietly by the natives, but the lishery has not yet become of commercial importance. In 

 Eastern Siberia, according to Scammon, there are extensive fisheries carried on by the natives 

 from June to September, with nets and harpoons. They eat the flesh and sell the oil, a considerable 

 portion of which is no doubt secured by American whale ships. 2 



9. THE NARWHAL. 



DISTRIBUTION. The Narwhal, Monodon monoceros Linn., whose long spiral tusk has always 

 been an object of curiosity, and gave rise to the stories of the imaginary creature known as the 

 I'nicorn, is now found in only one part of the United States along the northern shores of Alaska. 

 It is still abundant in the Arctic Ocean, and many tusks are brought down yearly by American 

 and European whalers, obtained from the natives of Greenland and Siberia. It has long since 

 ceased to appear on the coasts of Great Britain, the last having been seen oft' Lincolnshire in 1SOO. 

 There is a record of one having been seen in the Elbe at Hamburg in 1730. 



SIZE, USES, ETC. The Narwhal is ten to fourteen feet long, somewhat resembling the white 

 whale in form, is black, and in old age mottled or nearly white. The tusk, a modified tooth, 

 grows out of the left side of the upper jaw, to the length of eight or ten feet. All its teeth, except 

 its tusks, are early lost, and it is said to feed on fish and soft sea-animals. The Eskimos utilize it 

 in many ways. Its ivory, however, is the only product of value, to civilized man, this being made 



'Yesterday morning Capt. Benjamin Lovell captured two fine sprdinnis of the White Whale in tho weir at 

 Y:iniHintl], which is probably the first time ihis kind of fish h:is been taken in the waters .!' the United States on the 

 Atlantic seaboard. The specimens captured arc a cow and calf, the lonner about ten feet long, perfectly white, and 

 weighing about 7nn pounds, and the latter some, two fret, less in length, of a dark gray eolor, and about ".00 pounds 

 weight, both being quite fat. Evening Standard, New Bedford, October I'. 1 . !>?.">. 



2 At a meeting, in I860, of the Polytechnic Association of the American Instil ute. in New York, a paper was read, 

 prepared by D. H. Tetu, of Ivamonraska. Canada, on the White Whale of the Sainl Lawrence. The Canadians call 

 it a Porpoise; it is found for a distance of 200 miles between Saint Koch and Father Point, also in the rivers emptying 

 into Hudson's Bay. Since the disc-oven of ( 'anada, an article of commerce, but ihe oil not very good and little use 

 found for the skin ; lately M. Tetu has succeeded in purifying the oil and tanning the skin. The oil is equal to the 

 hest sperm oil. The average price of the animal I. -n years ago u as .- in. now it is sl.Ml. The average weight is 2,500 

 pounds; tho largest weigh r.,000 pounds, and are worth s-,'(id. The average length is twenty-two feet, and circumfer- 

 ence fifteen feet. M. Tetu caught the whale in nets near the river Saguenay. 



Tho skin does not make good sole-leaf her, being loo pliable. Ordinary tanning proces.se.-, are employed, except that 

 theliniug is omitted, and the "training" takes more time on account of the closeness of the fiber of the skin. The 

 leather is very durable, and the skin of a whale is equal to tin- skins of twelve to twenty-four calves. The leather is 

 chiedy used in the British army. 



