THE WHITE WHALE 151 



narwhal. This narwhal (in reality a near ally of the 

 beluga) is a jfine cetacean about fifteen long and 

 sharply differentiated from the white whale by reason 

 of the long tusks, spirally grooved, borne by the 

 males. Sometimes, as in the fragment figured in this 

 work, a narwhal is seen with tivo tusks. The colour 

 of these sea-unicorns is an indistinct greyish mottling, 

 paler below like that of a young white whale ; but old 

 animals become quite beluga-like in their pure white 

 hide. The narwhal also resembles the beluga in its 

 incomplete dorsal fin; in its preying upon fish and 

 cephalopods; and in its preference for the colder 

 seas. Three examples only have been observed on 

 our shores. 



A white whale was recorded from the mouth of 

 the Tyne on June lo, 1903 ; another was seen off 

 Scarborough on August 1 9 of the same year ; while 

 in 1904 a third example was seen on August 11 

 careering up and down Loch Fyne. On November 

 5, 1904, a beluga passed the Marine Drive at Castle 

 Hill, Scarborough, within sixty yards of the wall. 

 It was going northwards, and its respiration could 

 be plainly heard. Another, which had gone a long 

 way up the Yorkshire Ouse, and taped eleven feet 

 six inches, was found dead at Cawood on March 31, 

 1905. It may here be mentioned that in these ani- 

 mals the upper termination of the windpipe or trachea 

 is directly prolonged into the nasal passages; while 

 the spiracle is valved, shutting immediately after cessa- 



