208 THE BELUGA, OR WHITE WHALE. 



The food of the Beluga is said to be cod, had- 

 docks, flounders, arid smaller fish of this description. 

 It seeks them with perseverance, pursues them with 

 ardour, and devours them with avidity. 



Its favourite haunts are evidently the higher 

 latitudes of the Arctic Regions. They are plenti- 

 ful in Hudson's Bay, Davis Straits, and on some 

 parts of the northern coasts of Asia and America, 

 where they frequent the large rivers. Steller men- 

 tions them as being found at Kamschatka; and 

 according to Charleroix, they are numerous in the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence, and go with the tide as high 

 as Quebec. There are fisheries both for them and 

 the porpoise in that river. A considerable quantity 

 of oil is obtained, and of their skins is made a 

 sort of Morocco leather, thin, yet strong enough 

 to resist a musket-ball (Pen. Art. Zool. i. 183). 

 They also abound near Disco Island in Greenland, 

 and are not uncommon in Spitzbergen. Mr. Scorseby 

 never observed them lower than Jan May en's Land. 

 This navigator also remarks, that he has seldom seen 

 them among the ice, but in those places where the 

 water is clearest and smoothest. They are not at 

 all shy, but often follow the ships, and tumble about 

 the boats in herds of thirty or forty ; bespangling 

 the surface with their splendid whiteness. They 

 are seldom pursued by the whale fishers, not only 

 becanse it is difficult to strike them, on account of 

 their great activity ; but because the harpoon often 

 gives way ; and they are, moreover, of comparatively 

 little value when killed- It is only a few stragglers 



