12 The White Whale. 



the coasts of Karatsohatka ; so that it may be said to inhabit all the circum- 

 polar seas. 



It is remarkable that whilst other roving whales, like the migratory birds, 

 seek a warmer temperature iu lower latitudes on the approach of frost, the 

 Beluga, on the contrary, prefers to pass the coldest season amidst the ice and 

 gloom of the Arctic Seas, and the hottest months of the year in compara- 

 tively warm watei', and under sunny skies. It thus exhibits greater capa- 

 bility of enduring a considerable range of temperature than any other whale. 

 The Narwhal, its winter companion in the frozen seas, is rarely found south 

 of 63 deg. N. lat., and the "-Eight Whale," or " Greenland Whale" {Balcena 

 mysticetus), though it visits high latitudes in summer, commences its run 

 southward about the end of August. 



It cannot be said to belong to the British fauna, for only three instances 

 are recorded of its having been seen on our coasts.*' 



In the third volume of the " Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural Ilistory 

 Society" (p. 371) was published an account by Mr. (afterwai'ds Dr.) Neill 

 and Dr. Barclay, of a White Whale killed in the Frith of Forth in the month 

 of June, 1815. Mr. Neil), who records therein the capture of the animal, says 

 that for three months, during March, April, and May, 1815, it had been seen, 

 passing and repassing the harbour of Alloa, running up the Frith with the 

 tide, and generally, but not always, returning with the ebb ; and that it was 

 supposed to be in pursuit of salmon. Many attempts were made to capture 

 it, and it was at last killed, on the 5th of June, by a rausket-ball in the lungs 

 by the salmon-fishers near the Abbey of Cambuskenneth, Stirling. The 

 specimen, which was a male, 13 feet 9 inches long, was purchased by Mr. 

 Bald, of Alloa, and sent to Professor Jameson, Professor of Natural History 

 and President of the Wernerian Society at Edinburgh. There an admirable 

 water-colour drawing was made of it by Mr. Syme, the artist to the society, 

 which drawing, as well as the whale itself, is preserved in the Edinburgh 

 Museum of Science and Ai't. Dr. Barclay gave a full description of its 

 anatomy, which was appended to Mr. Neill's account of its capture; and in 

 illustration of their joint paper in the " Wernerian Memoirs," an engraving 

 on copper was made by Lizars, which has been copied, with acknowledgment, 

 by Captain Scoresby in 1820, by Sir William Jardine in 1837, by Mr. Bell in 

 1837 and 1874, and, without acknowledgment, by numerous compilers. 

 This copper-plate, engraved by W. H. Lizars from Symes's drawing, made 

 a few days before the Battle of Waterloo was fought, is now in my possession. 

 It was presented to me by Dr. Robert Brown, F.L.S., to whose " Memoir on 

 the Mammals of Greenland " I have already referred. 



Mr. Neill, in the paper referred to, mentions that Colonel Imrie (also a 

 member of the Wernerian Society), informed him that in August, 1793, he 

 saw two young Belugas which had been cast upon the beach of the Pentland 

 Firth, some miles to the east of Thurso. They were both males. The lengih 

 of one was 7 feet, and of the other 7 feet 6 indies. The principal colour of 

 their skin was white, but that was mottled with brownish-grey. 



The third occurrence of the Beluga in Britain is recorded by Messrs. 

 Baikie and Heddle in their " Historia Naturalis Orcadensis," where it is stated 



* I am inclined to think, however, that some of the white whales mentioned by Mr. 

 Couch as having been seen on the Cornish ooast, were Behigas, and not albino iudiriduals 

 of another species, as he supposed. 



