THE WHALE. 353 



The e3-e is placed immediately above the junction of the lips, very near 

 the shoulder, and thus either eye can see only the objects on its own 

 side ; it is very small, and often difficult to discover ; the eyelids are 

 destitute of lashes, and so swollen by the grease which occupies their 

 interior, that they are almost incapable of being moved. The structure 

 of the eye is admirably adapted for aquatic media. 



The Greenland Whale, as its name indicates, inhabits the Arctic seas 

 without having, however, any fixed dwelling-place. Its coming and 

 going depends on the state of the ice, and it immediately leaves a neigh- 

 borhood when the ice is melted. Accordmg to some observers, the old 

 whales never come south of 65^ north latitude, nor the younger ones 

 south of 64°. Between the 66° and 69° both young and old are seen 

 regularly in December and January. In March, numbers are seen in the 

 bays and near the islands of the coast of Greenland, but after that month 

 they retire to the north, and in summer may be found in the latitude of 

 71° to 75° north, resuming their journey to the south in the end of Sep- 

 tember. 



According to the observations of Scoresby and Brown, the whales 

 pair about June or July, and bring forth their young (never more 

 than one at a birth) in ten months. No one has yet seen how the 

 little one is taught to suck. Other marine mammals are either born 

 on land, or if born in the water, as is the case with the Sirenia, 

 are clasped by the mother to her breast and raised above the sur- 

 face. The whales, from their bodily structure, must, from the first 

 moment of their lives, perform the same motions as the parent. Scam- 

 mon states that the mother reclines on one side on the surface of the 

 water in order to give suck. The young whale sucks for nearly a year, 

 during which time the mother displays the utmost affection and solici- 

 tude, exposing herself to all dangers, and never leaving it as long as she 

 IS alive. 



The movements of the whale are by no means so slow as we might 

 imagine, if we regarded only the unwieldy shape of the carcass. A 

 whale wounded at Scoresby Sound on the east coast of Greenland, was 

 found dead next day on the west coast at Omenak ; it must therefore 

 have swum round Cape Farewell, and traversed a distance of nearly 

 three hundred miles. Considerable difference of opinion exists as to the 

 length of time the whale can remain under water. Under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances it seldom exceeds half an hour, although one instance is 

 45 



