WHALES AND DOLPHINS. 



merly highly esteemed in France, and was 

 a food allowed by the church in periods of 

 fasting. Belon relates that he saw porpoises 

 sold in Paris on Friday. Porpoise flesh 

 has a very decided taste of train-oil, and at 

 the present day its use as an article of food 

 is confined to the high north. 



The number of the teeth is much smaller 



in the terrible Killer- whale (Orca gladiator), 

 fig. 136, the hysena of the northern seas. 

 This formidable dolphin may attain the length 

 of 26 feet. It has a round head, a short 

 flattened and rounded muzzle, and broad 

 fore-limbs rounded at the end. The dorsal 

 fin is very high and pointed, in the form of 

 a bent sabre; the tail fin large, halfmoon- 



Fig. 136. — The Killer-whalef {Orca gladiator). 



shaped ; the body slender, black above, white 

 below, often marked with white patches above 

 the eyes and behind the dorsal fin. The jaws 

 have only 1 1 very strong conical and slightly 

 recurved teeth in each half, 44 accordingly in 

 all, and these are all situated in front 



The killer- whales swim in a line, one 

 behind the other, with a speed that really 

 makes one dizzy to look at them. I have 

 often seen them on the coasts of Norway; 

 they came only in heavy storms to sport 

 round our ship. They are the absolute 

 tyrants of the seas, and work fearful slaughter 

 among the seals and among other cetaceans. 

 Eschricht, a Danish anatomist, who has 

 occupied himself with the Cetacea in a very 

 thorough manner, found a seal sticking in the 

 throat of a killer-whale of about 16 feet in 

 length, which had owed its death to its 

 voracity, since it was prevented from swallow- 



ing this seal by having thirteen porpoises and 

 fourteen seals already engulfed in its stomach! 

 The shoals of killer-whales attack the largest 

 cetaceans, and vanquish them. They are said 

 to be peculiarly fond of the fat fleshy tongues 

 of the whalebone whales. Whale-fishers de- 

 test them because the whales soon leave the 

 parts where the killer -whales show them- 

 selves, and the whalers cannot harpoon the 

 latter because of their rapidity. They are 

 frequently killed with explosive bullets fired 

 from weapons of wide range. Frequently in 

 the eagerness of their pursuit they are carried 

 too far in their chase after fishes and seals, 

 and thus find their way into rivers or get 

 stranded on the shores. 



The Pilot-whale, the Caaing Whale of the 

 Scotch (Globicephalus me/as), fig. 137, although 

 a near ally of the killer-whale, is nevertheless 

 widely distinguished from it by its pacific 



