Half -Light over Cold Seas 8i 



hunt in 1834 no fewer than seven hundred of these dolphins were 

 killed in one day, the thirty-first of December. The White-sided 

 Dolphin {Lagenorhynchiis acuttis) is one of the most strikingly col- 

 ored of all whales, being black above and white below with a broad 

 band of yellowish brown between, in the middle of which is a large 

 white patch. There are then two pairs of jet-black stripes, one ex- 

 tending from the tail forward through the colored flanks to merge 

 with the dark back just in front of the tall dorsal fin, while the 

 other passes from the flippers, which are also black, to the eye. The 

 upper side of the beak is always black and the chin and throat yel- 

 low or cream. White-sided dolphins grow to about nine feet in 

 length and assemble in enormous schools of up to two thousand. 

 They are a North Atlantic form extending from the polar ice front 

 in summer as far south as Massachusetts on the American side and 

 the British Isles on the European. They are herring-eaters and the 

 jaws are armed with a large number of very small teeth. 



In view of this ancient tradition of whale and dolphin herding 

 along the coasts of Norway, it is quite possible that Ohthere may 

 have been referring to this procedure, and a catch of sixty large 

 whales, such as he mentions, would then indeed be memorable, even 

 to him. It is possible also that the whales of which he spoke as being 

 commonly taken in his country were the black right whale, be- 

 cause an eighth- or ninth-century grave made of stone slabs which 

 was excavated at Hundholm in his home country of Halgoland con- 

 tained, among other things, some tongue bones of this species. It 

 appears, moreover, that the Norse also used a large ballista, or sort 

 of super crossbow, for shooting whales. This was wound up by a 

 winch operated by two men and shot an extremely heavy harpoon 

 bearing a tremendous iron head which was made in one piece with 

 a long collar that fitted over the front half of a wooden shaft of 

 three-inch diameter. This would account for the Norsemen's ap- 

 parent ability to take the larger whales, and perhaps even the ror- 

 quals, which sink when dead but which could be held afloat by such 

 heavy gear, provided it was attached to ropes that were strong 

 enough. Ropes, as King Alfred tells us, were made of twisted walrus 

 or seal hide, but the Norse also had lines of bast and twisted cow 

 hair. Hemp was unknown. Multistranded ropes of seal hide are ex- 

 tremely strong, and one would probably be quite sufficient to keep 



