.THE WHITE WHALE OR BELUGA 



Genus Delphinapterus. 



THE WHITE WHALE OR BELUGA. 



Delphinapterus leucas, Pallas. 

 Plate 47. 



This other Arctic species, nearly related to the Narwhal, measures 

 from 12 to 20 feet in length. The forehead is full and rounded. The 

 jaws contain from eight to ten teeth on each side. There is no back 

 fin, but its place is occupied by a low ridge. The skin is smooth, in 

 colour a glossy yellowish white in the adult, in the young a dark 

 mottled grey. 



The White Whale inhabits the waters of the circumpolar region, 

 ranging as far north as 81° 35', according to Greely. It is abundant 

 north of Iceland and about Spitzbergen, and also frequents the mouths 

 of the great rivers of Northern Siberia. From the Seas around Greenland 

 it ranges on the American side to Labrador, the river St. Lawrence and 

 Alaska. This Whale only occasionally visits the British Islands. Two 

 immature examples are said to have been stranded in the Pentland Firth, 

 west of Thurso, in 1793. Another which had previously been noticed 

 for three months in the Firth of Forth, was killed by some fishermen 

 in June 18 15. The occurrence of one was recorded in the Island of 

 Auskerry, Orkneys, in October 1845 (Bell). 



Alston mentions one seen in Loch Etive in June 1878, and accord- 

 ing to Millais another was caught by the flukes of the tail between the 

 two posts of a stake net near the little Ferry, Sutherland, in 1879. 



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