Distribution of Marine Animals, 119 



It might be supposed, again, that species so active and so 

 powerful as the whales would range over the whole ocean, 

 from the Arctic to the Antarctic seas. Yet in viewing their 

 distribution it appears that, with the whole stretch of the 

 ocean at their command, they, with the exception of the 

 dolphins, frequent special areas. Thus the right- or whalebone- 

 whales are confined to the temperate and cold regions of both 

 hemispheres. The Arctic right-whale haunts the neighbour- 

 hood of ice, under which it frequently takes refuge. Tempe- 

 rature may thus have an important bearing on its distribution ; 

 but, granting this, it has also to be remembered that nowhere 

 but in such waters could it find a pelagic fauna so rich in 

 large Cliones and other Pteropods and of large Copepocls 

 intermingled with Medusae, on which it delights to feed. 

 Moreover, nowhere could it, one of the most timorous 

 mammals, find such vast solitudes, where it can roam without 

 molestation. The same causes probably affect the distribution 

 of the southern right-whale, and it is at least known that its 

 active pursuit led to its rarity in European waters, for it is 

 less rigidly confined to the Antarctic seas than the northern 

 species to the Arctic. Another species of small size (Neo- 

 balcena) is confined to the seas of Australia and New Zealand. 

 Food, environment, and temperature may have an important 

 bearing on limitation in this case. 



Of the toothed whales the sperm-whales and the Ziphioids 

 have an extensive range, being, as Beddard says, " equally 

 at home in the calm seas of the tropics and in the stormy 

 waters of the Antarctic ocean," as well as in the North 

 Atlantic. The former, as a rule, is an inhabitant of the 

 deeper waters far from land, probably because the cuttlefishes, 

 which form a favourite article of diet, are most plentiful there, 

 yet it also feeds on fishes, even, like the porbeagle shark, 

 stripping the fishermen's lines, and occasionally swallowing a 

 shark or a seal. This varied dietary is consistent with its 

 wide range in the ocean. 



In the family of the Dolphins, Beluga is for the most part 

 Arctic, only rarely being seen on European shores; but it 

 ascends rivers, e. g. the St. Lawrence, as Prof. Prince, the 

 Dominion Commissioner of Fisheries, tells me, for 150 miles, 

 apparently after salmon. The narwhal frequents the same 

 oceanic region. The common porpoise is Northern Atlantic 

 and Pacific; another occurs off South America and in the 

 Pacific ; whilst Neomeris is found in the seas of India, the 

 Cape, and Japan. The dolphins frequent all the oceans, seas, 

 and great rivers of the world, and they are capable of adapting 



