GREENLAND RIGHT- WHALE 



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whale, we are not told ; and unless, they employ their tusks for the purpose — which 

 would be an unrecorded use for those weapons — it is extremely difficult to imagine 

 how they manage to break up the carcase into portions small enough to be swallowed, 

 as there are no incisors in the lower jaw, and those in the upper jaw are small and 

 scarcely project above the level of the gum. 



The Pacific walrus was never very widely distributed, although it ranged west- 

 wards to Cape Chelagskoi and eastwards to Point Barrow in North Alaska, and 

 was particularly abundant in Bristol Bay north of the Alaskan Peninsula. The exist- 

 ence of walruses in the North Pacific became known about 1640 ; but, whaling being 

 much more profitable, regular walrus-hunting was not engaged in before 1860, when, 

 owing to the decrease of whales, the whalers turned their attention to the walrus 

 with such vigour, that the animal, like its Atlantic relative, is rapidly becoming 

 exterminated. 



GREENLAND WHALE 



Greenland Right- The Arctic Ocean is the home of three cetaceans, none of 

 Whale. which ranges very far beyond its limits. By far the largest of 

 these is the Greenland right-whale (Balcena mysticetus), apppropriately called 

 the Arctic whale, since its distribution seems nearly circumpolar. This whale 

 frequents the vicinity of the ice-floes, and, although in some cases found in the 

 open sea during the summer, never apparently wanders beyond the southern 

 boundary of the ice-field in winter. So soon, however, as the winter ice, which has 

 compelled it to go south, breaks up, the whale once more travels north. In the 

 North Atlantic the species is never found south of a line drawn through Lapland, 

 Iceland, and Labrador. On the Pacific side its southernmost limit is 56° N. latitude in 

 the Sea of Okhotsk. In colour this whale is usually black, with very little white, and 

 in length it ranges from 50 to 60 feet or more. It is the most specialised member 

 of the whole group, having the longest whalebone, the narrowest upper jaw, and 

 the greatest lateral expansion of the lower jaw. The head occupies a third of the 



