THE RORQUAL. 101 



approach to the sea-shore ; but the enmity of the narwhal is 

 evidently fabulous, as both cetaceans may frequently be seen 

 together in perfect harmony. 



Besides these formidable attacks of what may be considered 

 as more or less noble foes, the whale is constantly harassed by 

 the bites of the vilest insects. A large species 

 of louse adheres by thousands to its back, and 

 gnaws this animated pasture-ground, so as to 

 cover it frequently with one vast sore. In the 

 summer, when this plague is greatest, numbers 

 of aquatic birds accompany the whale, and settle 



, . . , . ' , Wbals Louse 



on his back, as soon as it appears above the 

 water, in order to feed upon these disgusting parasites. 



Barnacles often cover the whale in such masses, that his 

 black skin disappears under a whitish mantle, and even sea- 

 weeds attach themselves to his vast jaws, floating like a beard, 

 and reminding one of Birnam's wandering forest. 



As its name testifies, the home of the Greenland whale is 

 confined to the high northern seas, where it has been met with 

 in the open waters or along every ice-bound shore as far as man 

 has penetrated towards the Pole. The southern limit of its 

 excursions seems to be about 60° N. lat. It never visits the 

 North Sea, and is seldom found within 200 miles of the British 

 coasts. Its favourite resorts are the so-called whale-grounds,* 

 between 74° and 80° N. lat., where the warmth, imparted to the 

 water by the Gulf-stream, favours the multiplication of the 

 small marine animals which form the nourishment of the 

 Leviathan of the seas. 



Sometimes open spaces in the ice, abounding in minute 

 crustaceans and medusse, attract a larger number of whales, but 

 the huge creature cannot be said to live in larger herds or asso- 

 ciations. 



The Fin-fish or northern Eorqual (Balcenoptera boops, mus- 

 culus) attains a greater length than the sleek-backed Greenland 

 whale, but does not equal it in bulk, having a more elongated 

 form and a more tapering head. Its whalebone is much shorter 

 and coarser, being adapted to a different kind of food, for, de- 

 spising the minute medusse and crustaceans which form the food 

 of its huge relation, the more nimble rorqual pursues the herring, 



* See page 20. 



