THE WHALES, DOLPHINS AND MANATEES 337 



swallow food under water without the latter entering the lungs: 

 The familiar " blowing " or " spouting " takes place at intervals 

 as the animal reaches the surface, and is part of the act of 

 respiration. 1 The Cetacea includes the mightiest creature that 

 exists or has ever lived, the gigantic Sibbald's Rorqual, which is 

 eighty-five feet in length; 



A remarkable Cetacean which is never found in salt water, 

 or at best only in the brackish waters of the Sunder bunds, and 

 inhabits the rivers Ganges and Indus, from their mouths upwards, 

 is the Susu, or Gangetic Dolphin (Platanista gangetica). It is 

 sooty black in colour, and measures from six to twelve feet in 

 length. It has a somewhat globular-shaped head, with a long, 

 narrow, spoon-shaped snout, the upper and lower jaws of which are 

 implanted with numerous teeth, pointed and conical in front, 

 while the back ones are narrower and flattened. The Susu frequents 

 the deep reaches and creeks of the river, occasionally coming to 

 the surface to blow, and, although often heard, is but seldom cap- 

 tured. Its food appears chiefly to consist of fish, shrimps, molluscs, 

 etc., for which it hunts in the muddy ooze of the river bed. r , 



The Inia, or Amazon Dolphin (Inia Geoffrensis), is another 

 remarkable fresh-water dolphin. Exceedingly numerous through- 

 out the Amazons, Bates states that it is nowhere more plentiful 

 than in the shoaly water at the mouth of the Tocantins, especially 

 in the dry season.- The Indians have a story that the " Bouto," 

 as they call this creature, " once had the habit of assuming the 

 shape of a beautiful woman, with hair hanging loose to her heels, 

 and walking ashore at nights in the streets of Ega, to entice young 

 men down to the water. If anyone was so much smitten as to 

 follow her to the water-side, she grasped her victim round the 

 waist and plunged beneath the waves with a triumphant cry." 

 It is held in veneration, and on this account the Indians can hardly 

 be induced to harpoon it. The animal is about seven or eight 

 feet in length, of a bluish colour above, passing into a full flesh- 

 tint beneath. The head is furnished with a long beak, there 

 is a kind of keel-shaped dorsal fin, and the flippers are of fair size, 

 broad at their base and then tapering. 



1 These note* on the general structure of the Cetacea, and the subsequent 

 description of the different species, have been largely compiled from the writings 

 of Professor James Murie. 

 W 



