THE WHITE WHALE 1/7 



Greenland or the rivers of North America are cut off 

 from the sea by immense nets or even mere rows of 

 stakes set across the channel ; being then shot or 

 harpooned, or merely driven on shore. Small ones 

 can be taken like fish with a baited hook. A beluga 

 fishery was established many years ago on the Tigel 

 River in Eastern Siberia, thirty miles from the sea, 

 the whales being lanced or harpooned from June 

 to September ; in Spitsbergen, immense nets are 

 used which will take great numbers of these 

 animals simultaneously.-^ Tromsoe is also a seat of 

 the white whale industry. The commercial value of 

 each beluga being about ^3, one might envy the 

 earlier whalers, since it is said that in 1868 a single 

 ship captured hundreds, and that in those days, at any 

 rate, a captain could reasonably expect to take yearly 

 five hundred beluga and narwhal — chiefly the former. 

 The Greenlanders are said to dry the flesh for food 

 (reminding one of the porpoises brought to English 

 tables in the days of Henry VI 1 1.), while windows 

 are (or were) made from the sheets of delicate mem- 

 brane {? peritoneum) which line the whale's interior. 

 Lastly, the carcases are sometimes utilised in the 

 Norwegian guano factories. 



The beluga is one of the few cetaceans which 

 have been exhibited alive to the public. In 1865 an 

 example was living in the Aquarial Gardens at 



1 Belugii nets are u.sed by Nor\vej;ians, Russians ami Sanioyeds alike. 

 It is said tliat in 1880 three hundred white whales were taken in 

 Magdalena Hay at a single cast ! 



