Afternoon by the Ice 281 



ner of other profitable commodities that could be collected in, on, 

 or by the northern seas. One of these was eiderdown, the feathers of 

 the eider duck which were in enormous demand throughout Europe 

 and America for stuffing pillows, mattresses, and covers for the beds 

 of the wealthy. Finally, the Scots had an entirely separate whaling 

 industry all their own, employing small fast schooners to hunt the 

 vast schools of bottle-nosed whales on the open ocean. 



The Bottle-nosed Whale {Hyper addon rostratus) is both a most 

 singular beast and a member of the most peculiar and least-known 

 tribe of whales. These are the ziphioids, and they are toothed whales. 

 There are about sixteen known species of ziphioids, clearly divided 

 into five genera. Four of these genera cover Baird's and Arnux's 

 Beaked Whales (Berardius bairdii and Berardius arnuxii), Cuvier's 

 Beaked Whale (Ziphius cavirostris), and some half dozen species of 

 Strap-toothed Whales (Mesoplodon), among which the best known 

 is Sowerby's Whale (Mesoplodon bidens), and a small, rare creature 

 known as Tasmacetus shepherdi. Ziphioids are of world-wide occur- 

 rence but, with the exception of the bottlenose, are seldom seen, and 

 are either little known or only known from a few bones. They are 

 washed ashore from time to time like other whales but, being of no 

 economic importance, they have usually been ignored, so that their 

 skulls, skeletons, and other preserved remains are rare even in mu- 

 seums. They are known collectively as beaked whales. 



Although they are definitely toothed whales, as distinct from ba- 

 leen whales, the teeth per se are usually reduced to only two in the 

 lower jaw with a row of minute, rudimentary ones embedded in the 

 gums of the lower or, in rarer cases, in both upper and lower jaws. 

 However, the very rare member of the group, known from only 

 three specimens washed ashore in New Zealand and named Tasma- 

 cetus shepherdi, has nineteen functional teeth on each side of both 

 upper and lower jaws. Sometimes the two teeth of certain Mesoplo- 

 don reach a considerable length and protrude well above the beak- 

 like upper jaw, just as do the lower tushes of a wild boar. 



There are at least nine known species of Mesoplodon, all but 

 Sowerby's Whale being exceedingly rare and very primitive ana- 

 tomically, as far as we can ascertain from the very limited number 

 of their skeletons that have been examined. The single pair of teeth 

 in the lower jaw occupies a different position in each species, rang- 



