326 TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



there are teeth in the upper as well as in the lower 

 jaw. 



The grampus is a very powerful and ferocious beast, 

 which ranges the ocean from Greenland to New Zealand, 

 and sometimes attains a length of twenty feet. It may 

 be known when seen swimming by its dorsal fin, which 

 is narrow and very high. Grampuses are the only 

 cetaceans which habitually prey on warm-blooded animals. 

 Indeed, this species is the most voracious and destructive 

 inhabitant of the ocean. Eschricht found in a large 

 specimen, the stomach of which measured 6 feet by 4, the 

 bodies of various seals, flayed and so twisted that they 

 had to be extricated one by one to count them. There 

 were also porpoises in it, though the body of only one 

 was entire. Altogether it contained the remains of 

 thirteen seals and thirteen porpoises, besides one very 

 small seal. But grampuses devour fish as well as warm- 

 blooded animals, and among the members of their own 

 order they will even attack whales, combining in packs 

 to hunt down and destroy them, as wolves combine to 

 hunt down and destroy different kinds of cattle. On the 

 north-west coast of America grampuses have been known 

 to seize and bear away a whale which had been captured 

 by whalers, in spite of all their efforts to prevent them. 



Many fabulous tales have been told of the grampus, 

 and one of them relates to their practice of attacking 

 whales. It has been said, for example, that they hunt 

 the whale in order to gratify a somewhat refined and 

 luxurious taste for " whale tongue." They have been said 

 expressly to worry and harass their huge victim for the 

 purpose of making him, in his agony, open his mouth. 

 Then the grampus was said to dart instantly upon its 

 tongue, seize it and tear it out, in order to enjoy so 

 delicious a morsel. 



