THE BELUGA. 149 



of tlieir fishing apparatus. The ivory spear, or tusk, the 

 Greenlanders employ in various household and economical 

 purposes instead of wood, and in the manufacture of 

 weapons, as darts or arrows, &c. When struck by a 

 harpoon, the narwhal dives with great velocity, and in 

 the same manner as the whale, but not to the same extent. 

 In general it descends about 200 fathoms; and on re- 

 turning to the surface is despatched by a whale-lance 

 without any difficulty. The blubber is about three inches 

 in thickness, and invests the whole body : it affords 

 about half a ton of oil. 



The narwhal may be registered among the occasional 

 visitants to the British shores. Of its visits, however, 

 only three instances are on record, as far as we can learn. 

 The first is recorded by Nicolas Tulpius in 1648. The 

 second is of one killed, in 1800, near Boston, in Lincoln- 

 shire, and said to have been twenty-five feet in length. 

 The third instance occurred in 1806, at the Sound of 

 Weesdale, in Shetland. 



The Beluga {DelpMnapterus Leucas, Pall.). 



The genus Delphinapterus is characterized by the 

 presence of a dorsal fin. Head small and blunt; teeth 

 variable in number. The beluga (White Fish, or 

 White Whale) is a native of the high northern latitudes, 

 and is one of the most beautiful, confident, and active of 

 its race. Its colour is clear milk-white, sometimes tinged 

 with a rose- colour or a slight wash of yellow, and the skin 

 is very soft, smooth, and slippery. It associates in small 

 troops or families, and is in the habit of following and 

 surrounding boats or ships, gambolling like the dolphin 

 around them ; or chasing its finny prey, in quest of 

 which it often ascends the mouths of rivers, occasionally 

 to a considerable distance. (Fig. 97.) During the in- 

 tense severity of the winter, the beluga is said to migrate 

 southwards { this journey cannot, however, be to any 

 great extent, as it very rarely occurs in the sea around 

 the most northern portion of the British Isles. Indeed 

 we do not know of more than one instance on record of 



VOL. 111. H 



