66 The Rorquals 



to prolong this section almost indefinitely, for really 

 there are so many kinds of whales, each with well- 

 defined peculiarities, and methods of living that are 

 interesting to note, that a very big book might be 

 written about them alone. 



But I have to remember that there are very many 

 other deep-sea people claiming notice, and consequently 

 must be as brief as I can in dealing with those I have 

 left to the tail of this Rorqual section. The smaller 

 Rorquals, such as the Bottle Nose (how is it, I wonder, 

 that so many landsmen seem to have a nodding ac- 

 quaintance with the Bottle Nose Whale ? Perhaps 

 because captains generally, upon a whale being sighted, 

 and a passenger asking its name, usually reply non- 

 chalantly, 'Oh, that's a Bottle Nose'), the curious 

 Beluga or white whale which furnishes our 'porpoise ' 

 hide boots and boot-laces, the ca-aing whale, the 

 porpoises, the dolphins {Delphinidae), each and every 

 one of these has a family history of its own, very 

 interesting to read ; but one may have too much of 

 cetology, if so undignified a chat as mine about them 

 can be dignified by so stately a title. Therefore I 

 will only make a few references to some of the smaller 

 whales by way of amends to them for devoting so much 

 time to their gigantic relatives, before passing on to 

 another great division of the population of the sea. 



Who that has ever been a sea passage, however 

 short, and kept his eyes open to his surroundings, has 

 not seen a Dolphin, or more likely many of these 

 interesting little whales, which in some branch of their 

 enormous family have the widest sea range of any of 

 the cetacea ? And not only sea-range, but in spite 

 of the fact that they are true denizens of salt water, 

 are continually found far inland preying upon the finny 

 population of rivers, and in a few cases presenting us 



