THE ORDER CETACEA. 191 



the winters are excessively rigorous, it is reported that 

 it quits these icy climates in search of more temperate 

 regions, and occasionally ascends rivers. These animals 

 are very gentle, and so familiar that when they discover 

 a vessel they swim away in a crowd to meet, forming a 

 kind of suite, and playing all manner of gambols.* The 

 Beluga, however, is no object of research to the whalers, 

 who set very little store by it. Mariners assert that it 

 is usually the precursor of the common whale, and that 

 whenever it makes its appearance this monarch of the 

 cetacea is at no very great distance. 



Sometimes they are captured either by very strong 

 nets or harpoons, for the sake of the oil they produce ; 

 when nets are used, they are extended across the stream, 

 so as to prevent their escape out of the river ; and, when 

 thus interrupted in their course to sea-ward, they are 

 attacked with lances, and great numbers of them are 

 sometimes killed. Captain Scoresby states that he has 

 seen them several times on the coast of Spitzbergen, 

 but never in numbers of more than three or four at a 

 time. 



1 The attachment of the female for the single young one 

 is very great, and would even be an honour to human 

 beings ; she retains it continually by her side, and is never 

 separated from it without displaying the most lively un- 

 easiness. She frequently presents it to one of the 

 mammae or breasts, which are situated near the tail, and 

 the little one sucks with avidity; it is of a dazzling white- 

 ness, and, to use the language of Dr. Shaw, the whole 

 forms a beautiful spectacle. 



The Beluga subsists upon cod, pleuronectes* (or flat- 



* Cuvier, Regne Animal, vol. iv. p. 458. 



* This signifies a genus of flat-fish, of which the sole, flounder, plaise, 

 turbot, halibut, &c, form species. 



