Jl. BROWN ON THE CETACEA OF GREENLAND. 87 



lat. 67° to lat. 69° N. They are now and then caught off the 

 coast during this period. Through the kindness of Hr. Bolbroe, 

 Colonibestyrer of Egedesminde, we obtained the skeleton of a 

 JVisa, which had been procured in this vicinity some years ago by 

 his predecessor Hr. Zimmer ; but I could see no difference in it, so 

 far as it could be examined in the roughly prepared state, from 

 the one usually found on the British coast. That the Phoccena 

 tuherculifei'a, Gray,* is different from the ordinary Porpoise, I am 

 inclined to doubt. I have examined several Porpoises caught on 

 the British coast, and have invariably found these tubercles on the 

 anterior edge of the dorsal fin more or less developed. Indepen- 

 dently of this, it is questionable whether such variable characters 

 (and we know that there are many such characters in Cetacea 

 which give no specific distinction) warrant the separation of 

 Phoccena tuberculifcra from P. communis. The flesh of the 

 Porpoise is far from contemptible as an article of food, and is much 

 relished by sailors, f 



Nowhere in the Arctic regions is it hunted, but in Pennant's 

 day, at least, vast numbers were taken in the River St. Lawrence, 

 near Petite Reviere, from the end of September to the beginning 

 of November, when they were in quest of eels. Pennant, Suppl. 

 Arctic Zool., p. 62, 



12. Beluga catodon (L.), Gray. 



Beluga rhinodon. Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., 1865, p. 278; 

 1869, p. 23. 



B, declivis, Cope, op. cit., 1865, p. 278; 1869, p. 27. 



Popular names. — White Whale (English whalers) ; Hvitfisk, 

 Hvidfisk (white fish) (Scandinavian seamen, and Danish colonists 

 in Greenland) ; Kelelluak (Greenlanders and Eskimo generally). 

 To distinguish it from the Narwhal, it is called also Kelelluak- 

 Kahortak, or simply Kakm^tak. The young is known as Uiak 

 (Fabricius). 



This is, beyond all comparison, so far as its importance to the 

 Greenlanders and Eskimo is concerned, the Whale of Greenland. 

 Like the Narwhal it is indigenous, but is only seen on the coast 

 of Danish Greenland during the winter months, leaving the 

 coast south of 72° N. lat. in June, and roaming about at the head 

 of Baffin's Bay and the western shores of Davis Strait during 

 the summer. In October it is seen to go west, not south, but in 

 winter can be seen, in company with the Narwhal, at the brokjpn 



* Proc. Zool. Soc, 1865, p. 320. 



f The flesh of the Porpoise and Grampus was eaten in the 14th century 

 in Lent time as fish ; and it is lamentable to think how much sin was com- 

 mitted until they were discovered to be Mammals. I have heard of the monks 

 of a Carthusian convent roasting an Otter under a similar zoologico-theological 

 error. A MS. in the British Museum (Harl. MSS., No. 279) contains a 

 receipt for making "puddynge of porpoise ;" and we find it served at table as 

 late as the time of Henry VIII., and in Scotland even still later. In the 

 accounts of Holyrood Palace we find frequent entries of moneys paid for 

 *' Porpess " for the royal table. 



