Prof. Eschricht on the Gangetic Dolphin. 289 



to answer in the affirmative, we have a further instance of har- 

 monious adaptation. 



Resuming the comparison, founded on the skeleton, between 

 the Gangetic dolphin and other toothed whales, it is above all 

 manifest, that the similarity with the Whitefish and the allied 

 Narwhale, in the osseous structure of their spinal column and 

 breast-fins, reappears again in the outer form of the body, and 

 not only in the breast-fins, but in the extremely low dorsal fins, 

 making it very probable that a certain extent of coincidence also 

 occurs in their mode of existence. I find the following observa- 

 tions on the Whitefish among the notes on the whales of the 

 coast of Greenland, which Capt. Holboll has placed at my dis- 

 posal. " The Whitefish supports itself both on fish and cuttle- 

 fish, as well as shell-fish, which it fetches from a very great depth. 

 Remnants of these animals are commonly found in its stomach ; 

 but if absent, it is generally filled with clay, or more rarely with 

 sand. I am at present unable to decide, whether it actually feeds 

 on the rich clay, or only swallows it together with sand, for the 

 purpose of digesting the animals which abound therein. Like 

 the Hyperoodon, the Whitefish must have the power to get rid 

 very quickly of its food on finding itself in danger. The chase 

 after it in the ' Sound ' is sometimes concluded in a iev^ hours, 

 and yet either nothing is found in the stomach, or else only some 

 loose fish-bones (of Hippoglossus pinguis and Sebastes norvegicus) 

 or some cuttlefish.^' 



Among some notes of M. Motzfeldt of Julianehaab, a native 

 Greenlander, communicated by Capt. Holboll, I find the follow- 

 ing : — " The Whitefish consumes enormous quantities of Sepia 

 loligo, Gadus ceglefinus, and large prawns. Vast numbers of that 

 cuttlefish are found at Ritenbenk in spring and autumn, and of 

 the Gadus in spring. The prawns are most probably caught at 

 a great depth in the ocean. ^^ 



It appears to me, that these observations on the Whitefish by 

 experienced men, contain more than one feature corresponding 

 entirely with what we know of the habits of the Gangetic dol- 

 phin, as far as can be judged from what has been communicated 

 about those habits ; while the similarity in that respect between 

 the Delphinus globiceps and the Micropteron is confined to the 

 circumstance, that these animals too are not gregarious, but live 

 mostly singly or in pairs. Their food is wholly difierent ; the 

 Hyperoodon, as well as Cachalot and D. globicepSj subsisting 

 chiefly on cuttlefish. That they likewise consume fish, is what 

 may be said perhaps of all whales — even the preying kinds, the 

 genus Orca — with exception only of the Glathvals. 



It now remains to compare our dolphin with a whale, to which, 

 judging from its exterior appearance and locality, it must come 



