516 



BELUGA. 



the teeth are rather blunt, small, not very nume- 

 rous, being about ten on each side, in both jaws : 

 the auditory passages are situated a little behind 

 the eyes : the body is fish-shaped, thick in the 

 middle, and tapering towards the tail, which is 

 slightly lobed or divided : the back has a kind of 

 longitudinal ridge on the lower part, as in the 

 Bal^na Mysticetus. The pectoral fins are thick 

 and fatty, and are marked at the edge into five 

 slight divisions; they contain the bones of the 

 five fingers, which may be easily felt within the 

 fin : there is no back fin. The skin, on every 

 part, is smooth and slippery, and the animal is 

 generally very fat. 



When this animal swims, says Dr. Pallas, it 

 bends the tail inwards in the manner of a craw- 

 fish, by which means it possesses the power of 

 swimming extremely fast, by the alternate incur- 

 vation and extension of that part. It has so great 

 a general affinity with the Seals, that the Samoids 

 consider it as a kind of aquatic quadruped. It 

 produces only one young at a birth, which is at 

 first of a blue tinge, and sometimes grey, or even 

 blackish ; acquiring as it advances in age the 

 pure milk-white colour. 



