WHITE WHALE AND NARWHAL. i^) 



one knew. I examined it and found it to differ from all the others then known here. Not long 

 after it was announced that there was a White Whale on exhibition at the Aquarial Gardens in 

 Boston ; that Mr. Cutting had brought alive from the Eiver Saint Lawrence a species that had never 

 been seen south of that river. Soon after I visited Boston and called to see it. I pronounced it to 

 be identical with the unknown species taken at Provincetown. In 1875 or 1876 another was seen in 

 the harbor, but the boats could not get it." 



October 11, 1875, two individuals, a cow about ten feet long and weighing 700 pounds approx- 

 imately, and a calf nearly as large as its mother, weighing about 500 pounds, were taken in the 

 Yarmouth Eiver by Capt Benjamin Lovell. They were sold to the Boston Society of Natural 

 History.^ 



Uses. — Certain oil manufacturers from Cape Cod have agencies in Canada, from which they 

 obtain the materials for the manufacture of an excellent machine oil, sold under the name of 

 "Porpoise-jaw oil." A large White Whale yields from eighty to one hundred gallons of ordinary 

 oil, besides the more precious head oil. Porpoise leather is made from the skins, a leather of almost 

 indestructible texture, and peculiarly impervious to water. From this the Canadian mail-bags are 

 made, and, to some extent, tourists' walking shoes. On our Alaska coast they are not unfrequently 

 taken, chiefly by the natives, but the fishery has not yet become of commercial importance. In 

 Eastern Siberia, according to Scammon, there are extensive fisheries carried on by the natives 

 from June to September, with nets and harpoons. They eat the flesh and sell the oil, a considerable 

 portion of which is no doubt secured by American whale ships.^ 



9. THE NARWHAL. 



Distribution. — The Narwhal, Monodon monoceros Linn., whose long spiral tusk has always 

 been an object of curiosity, and gave rise to the stories of the imaginary creature known as the 

 Unicorn, is now found in only one part of the United States — along the northern shores of Alaska. 

 It is still abundant in the Arctic Ocean, and many tusks are brought down yearly by American 

 and European whalers, obtained from the natives of Greenland and Siberia. It has long since 

 ceased to appear on the coasts of Great Britain, the last having been seen off Lincolnshire in 1800. 

 There is a record of one having been seen in the Elbe at Hamburg in 1736. 



Size, uses, etc. — The Narwhal is ten to fourteen feet long, somewhat resembling the white 

 whale in form, is black, and in old age mottled or nearly white. The tusk, a modified tooth, 

 grows out of the left side of the upper jaw, to the length of eight or ten feet. All its teeth, except 

 its tusks, are early lost, and it is said to feed on fish and soft sea-animals. The Eskimos utilize it 

 in many ways. Its ivory, however, is the only product of value to civilized man, this being made 



1 Yesterday morniDg Capt. Benjamin Lovell captured two fine specimens of the White Whale in the weir at 

 Yarmouth, which is probably the first time this kind of fish has been taken in the waters of the United States on the 

 Atlantic seaboard. The specimens captured are a cow and calf, the former about ten feet long, perfectly white, and 

 weighing about 700 pounds, and the latter some two feet less in length, of a dark gray color, and about 500 pounds 

 weight, both being quite fat. — Evening Standard, New Bedford, October 12, 1875. 



2 At a meeting, in 1860, of the Polytechnic Association of the American Institute, in New York, a paper was read, 

 prepared by D. H. Tetu, of Kamouragka, Canada, on the White Whale of the Saint Lawrence. The Canadians call 

 it a Porpoise ; it is found for a distance of 200 miles between Saint Koch and Father Point, also in the rivers emptying 

 into Hudson's Bay. Since the discovery of Canada, an article of commerce, but the oil not very good and little use 

 found for the skin; lately M. Tetu has succeeded in purifying the oil and tanning the skin. The oil is equal to the 

 best sperm oil. The average price of the animal ten years ago was $40, now it is $150, The average weight is 2,500 

 pounds ; the largest weigh 5,000 pounds, and are worth $200. The average length is twenty-two feet, and circumfer- 

 ence fifteen feet. M. Tetu caught the whale in nets near the river Saguenay. 



The skin does not make good sole-leather, being too pliable. Ordinary tanning processes are employed, except that 

 the lining is omitted, and the "training" takes more time on account of the closeness of the fiber of the skin. The 

 leather is very durable, and the skin of a whale is equal to the skins of twelve to twenty-four calves. The leather is 

 chiefly used in the British army. 



