Half -Light over Cold Seas 91 



American, and the fifty-fifth on the European, side, though it also 

 enters the Baltic. 



By reference to the map on page 87 it will be seen that this 

 northern bow of the Atlantic forms a distinct "province" made up 

 of a number of sea-countries that are confluent and lie between the 

 polar ocean to the north and the North Atlantic Ocean proper to 

 the south. As we shall see, many species are more or less confined to 

 this belt and to the other interoceanic provinces between the tem- 

 perate and polar seas, which are the principal abodes of all whales and 

 in which all major whaling industries are situated. Within this area 

 the white-beaked dolphin migrates north to the polar seas in the 

 summer and south into the cold temperate waters in the winter. It is a 

 common animal and associates in schools of up to fifteen hundred in- 

 dividuals. It is very like the white-sided dolphin but has a two-inch 

 white beak, a slightly more swollen head, a more sloping back fin, 

 and longer flippers. It is black above and white below, with a large 

 white spot behind the eye and two elongated white areas within the 

 black of the flanks, which are sometimes mottled gray. There is also 

 a white area on the back behind the blowhole. There is, however, 

 considerable individual variation in these markings, and sometimes 

 the animal's back is shot with purplish blue. There are about a hun- 

 dred small, regular teeth surrounding both jaws. 



The Narwhal (Monodon 7nonoceras) is the most amazing of all 

 whales and in some respects the most extraordinary of all living 

 mammals. It is a small species, growing to a maximum length of 

 about sixteen feet, is cylindrical in shape with a blunt rounded head, 

 a small tail, little rounded flippers, and a ridge one inch high along 

 the back in place of a dorsal fin. It has a single crescentic blowhole. 

 In color it is very singular. The young, which are about five feet 

 long when born and very carefully tended by their mothers for a 

 long period even after weaning, are usually uniformly dark gray, but 

 the adults develop all manner of dappHngs and leopardine spottings 

 of gray on a creamy background.- The females are always more in- 

 tensely spotted than the males but there are some very pale individ- 

 uals of both sexes, and the oldsters turn almost pure white. The un- 

 derside is less spotted and lighter. It is believed that this coloration 

 provoked their name from the Danish narhval, and the old Norse 



