HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



61 



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 ft. 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 bowsprit a very good view of it. It 

 could have been no other than the White Whale, the 

 B. borealis of Lesson.' " The whale lately exhibited 

 at the Westminster Aquarium belonged to this 

 species; unfortunately it did not live to equal in 

 docility and intelligence a specimen exhibited in 



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. The length 

 of the full-grown animal is about 1 6 ft., and its food 

 consists of fishes, Crustacea, and Cephalapods. 



The common Grampus or Killer {Orca gladiator, 

 Lacepede), (fig. 48) is a well-known and widely dis- 

 persed 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, viA 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 



Fig. 49. Pscudoiva crassidciis (Reinhardt). 



Fig. 50. Risso's Dolphin {Grampus griseiis, G. Cuv.). 



America, which "learned to recognise 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 

 DelphiiiKS tursio which was for a time with him in 

 the same tank, is said to have been even more docile 

 than this remarkable animal.* 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 



* Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 3rd series, vol. 17, p. 312. 



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." Eshricht 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 



