540 ACCOUNT O*^ THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



on the whale, at the very spot where it received its 

 wounds. The heart is very small. It performs 6 or 

 8 pulsations in a minute ; and continues its beating 

 for some hours after taken out of the body. The 

 body, also, though separated into any number of 

 parts, gives evidence of life for a similar length of 

 time. It is, therefore, extremely difficult to kill. It 

 is actually unsafe to trust the hand in its mouth, 

 though the head be separated from the body. 

 Though the whale-fishers frequently slip into the 

 water where sharks abound, there has been no in- 

 stance that I have heard of, of their ever having been 

 attacked by the shark. Besides dead whales, the 

 sharks feed on small fishes and crabs. A fish, in 

 size and form resembling a whiting, was found in 

 the stomach of one that I killed ; but the process of 

 digestion had gone so far, that its species could not 

 be satisfaetorily.discovered. In swimming, the tail 

 only is used ; the rest of its fins being spread out to 

 balance it, are never observed in motion but when 

 some change of direction is required. 



Cycloptehus Uparis. The unctuous sucker. — 

 Two of these animals were taken by Captain Fhipps 

 to the northward of Spitzbergen. 



Class PISCES. 



Gadits carhonarius. The Coal-fish. — This fish 

 was also procured by Captain Pliipps ; wliich, vn.i\\ 



