THE WHALES 



67 



seventy, occupying twelve minutes ; then it tosses its 

 ponderous tail high in the air and plunges into the sea, 

 to remain over an hour searching for food. These whales 

 display great affection for their young, and a bull will often 

 remain by a wounded mate and so lose its life. When 

 enraged, no animal is more to be dreaded. An estimate of 

 its power is shown in the instance of the ship Essex, 

 which was deliberately rammed and sunk by a maddened 

 cachelot, the vessel going down in ten minutes. The ship 

 Ann Alexander was destroyed in a similar manner ; and 

 Captain Scammon expressed the opinion that many vessels 

 never heard from were victims of infuriated whales. 



Among the small-toothed cetaceans the white whale 

 (Fig. 45) is a handsome creature common at the mouth of 

 the St. Lawrence 

 and in northern 

 waters generally. 

 It is almost white, 

 has a rounded 

 head, and attains a 

 length of about fif- 

 teen feet. One of 

 these whales was 

 brought to New 

 York from the vi- 

 cinity of the St. 



Lawrence, and I watched its final lodgment in a huge 

 tank in the New York Aquarium. It was caught by sink- 

 ing a box about twenty feet long and eight feet wide in 

 the mud of a bay which these whales enter at high water. 

 While several were in the bay, the entrance was closed 



Fig. 45. — The Beluga or White Whale. 



