6S THE WHALES 



with a net. As the water ran out with the tide, the 

 whales sought the lowest portion, and one was secured in 

 the box. At high tide it was towed to a neighboring town 

 and transferred to a car. The whale was packed with 

 wet seaweed and two or three men accompanied it, giving 

 it constant baths of fresh water at each station. In this 

 way, out of water, the white whale reached New York 

 and was successfully placed in the large tank of the 

 New York Aquarium, where it lived for many months. 

 A white whale was taken to Boston in the same way, and 

 being harnessed to a boat, drew children about. The one 

 I observed was a very docile and interesting creature. The 

 white whale has been seen seven hundred miles up the 

 Yukon, where it preys upon the countless salmon, and I 

 have seen numbers lying on the surface like small white 

 ice floes at the mouth of the Saguenay River. 



On our Atlantic shores, a pygmy sperm whale, the kogia, 

 is found. The large sperm and whalebone whales are 

 gradually disappearing, the introduction of steam whalers 

 hastening their extinction. Other species, as the California 

 gray whale, not followed so extensively, are increasing or 

 holding their own ; but the days of these huge animals are 

 numbered. 



The narwhal (Fig. 46) bears a close resemblance in shape 

 to the white whale, but is spotted like a leopard and has a 

 remarkable tusk, sometimes two, projecting ahead like the 

 sword of a swordfish. In it we see the conventional unicorn, 

 that figures so prominently in the books of two or three 

 centuries ago. The tusk is a tooth, eight or ten feet in 

 length, beautifully twisted, and is possessed by the male 

 alone, the female having two, but slightly developed. 



