297 



Note on the Beluga. 



"While Mr G. G. Butler, the Editing Secretary of the 

 Club, was coming down the river St. Lawrence from Quebec 

 in the autumn of 1900, he observed from the deck of the 

 steamer some gleaming white objects in the blue water, 

 which at a distance he mistook successively for masses of 

 ice, and for white buoys for mooring yachts ; but their 

 appearance and disappearance, and the machine-like smooth- 

 ness of their movement as they rotated slowly above 

 the surface, forbade either supposition ; and on asking a 

 French Canadian seaman, he was informed that they were 

 *' Marsouins," (porpoises.) Their brilliantly pure white hide 

 marked them as being no ordinary porpoise. On communicating 

 with Captain Norman of Berwick, he received this reply : 

 "I find that your white porpoise must evidently be Beluga 

 Leucas, one of the dolphin family, closely related to the 

 Narwhal, 12 to 16 feet long, and cream- white. These 

 white whales feed on fishes, which they follow far up the 

 St. Lawrence and other rivers." 



An excellent Plate is shown of this mammal in the volume 

 of Jardine's Natural History, upon Whales, (Edinburgh, 

 1837, p. 204, Plate XV.), where the account given of it 

 agrees with that of Captain Norman. "They are not at all 

 shy," it is there stated, " but often follow the ships, and 

 tumble about the boats in herds of thirty or forty ; bespangling 

 the surface with their splendid whiteness." 



" The original drawing for the Plate was taken by Mr 

 Syme, from an individual which for nearly three months 

 was observed to inhabit the Firth of Forth, passing upwards 

 almost every day with the tide, and returning with the 

 ebbing of the waters. During this time it was generally known 

 under the name of the White Whale, and was supposed 

 frequently to be in pursuit of salmon. Many fruitless 

 attempts were made to secure it ; but at length it was killed 

 by the salmon-fishers, by means of spears and fire-arms. 

 It was purchased by Mr Bald of Alloa, and transmitted by 

 him to Professor Jameson, and is now (1837) in the Royal 

 Museum at Edinburgh," 

 MM 



