286 WHALES AM) Dnl.I'HINS 



generally descends about 200 fatnoms, then returns to the 

 surface, and is despatched with a lance in a few minutes." 



In the ' Geographical Review ' (New York) for September, 

 1918, there is an account by M. P. Porsild ;< On ' ' Savssats ' : 

 A Crowding of Arctic Animals at Holes in the Sea Ice ". He 

 describes how, near Disko Island, by the freezing of the ice, 

 Narwhals and White Whales are restricted to bays from which 

 they cannot escape. They crowd at these holes — Eskimo 

 ' savssat ' — which are apparently made by the cushion on the 

 head in front of the blowhole and not by the tusks. He states 

 too that the male rests, sometimes asleep, with its tusk on 

 the ice through one of these holes. Great numbers are 

 slaughtered at the savssats, and one of the figures shows a 

 pile of 200 tusks obtained during the winter of 1914-15. 



An interesting account from the log of a famous whaling 

 captain, David Gray, of Peterhead, is given by Frank Buckland 

 in ' Animal Life ' of a fight between a Narwhal and a Walrus. 

 Both creatures were eventually killed by the whalers, and when 

 the Narwhal was examined it was found to have been disem- 

 bowelled, and had had much of the blubber of the belly region 

 eaten away. The Walrus's stomach, when examined, was 

 found to contain, besides pieces of sealskin, the part of the 

 Nanvhal it had eaten. Captain Gray suggested that the 

 Walrus had come upon the sleeping Narwhal, had gone under- 

 neath it, and, digging its tusk into the cetacean's belly, had 

 clasped it round the body with its flippers and later assumed 

 the position in which the whalers discovered it — the Walrus 

 uppermost and the Narwhal underneath. 



Genus Delphinapterus. 



THE WHITE WHALE OR BELUGA 

 {Delphinapterus leucas). PI. VII B. 



The only other representative of the sub-family Delphinap- 

 terinae besides the Narwhal is the White Whale or Beluga, the 

 latter a Russian word having the same meaning. 



It is closely akin to the Narwhal, and indeed a young White 

 Whale might easily be confused with a tuskless Narwhal 

 except that the former creature has teeth in both jaws. Like 



