62 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



enced males, whom the rest follow like a ilock of sheep — a property from which 

 the animal is called in Shetland the " ca'ing whale." No cetacean strands more 

 frequently than the black dolphin, and occasionally large herds have been driven 

 on the shores of Iceland, Norway, and the Orkney, Shetland and Faeroe islands, 

 where their captm-e is hailed as a godsend. The intelligence that a shoal of 

 ca'ing whales or grinds has been seen approaching the coast, creates great ex- 

 citement among the otherwise phlegmatic inhabitants of the Faeroe Islands. 

 The whole neighborhood, old and young, is instantly in motion, and soon numer- 

 ous boats shoot off from shore to intercept the retreat of the dolphins. Slowly 

 and steadily they are driven toward the coast; the phalanx of their enemies 

 draws closer and closer together ; terrified by stones and blows, they run ashore, 

 and lie gasping as the flood recedes. Then begins the Avork of death, amid the 

 loud shouts of the executioners and the furious splashings of the victims. In 

 this manner more than 800 grinds were massacred on August 16, 1776; and 

 during the four summer months that Langbye sojourned on the island in 1817, 

 623 were driven on shore, and served to pay one-half of the imported corn. 

 But, on the other hand, many years frequently pass without yielding one single 

 black whale to the tender mercies of the islanders. 



The ferocious ore, or grampus {Delphinus orca), is the tiger of the Arctic 

 seas. Black above, white beneath, it is distinguished by its large dorsal fin, 

 which curves backward toward the tail, and rises to the height of two feet or 

 more. Measuring no less than twenty-five feet in length and twelve or thirteen 

 in girth, of a courage equal to its strength, and armed with formidable teeth, 

 thirty in each jaw, the grampus is the dread of the seals, whom it overtakes in 

 spite of their rapid flight ; and the whale himself would consider it as his most 

 formidable enemy, were it not for the persecutions of man. The grampus gen- 

 erally ploughs the seas in small troops of four or five, following each other in 

 close single file, and alternately disappearing and rising so as to resemble the 

 undulatory motions of one large serpentiform animal. 



The family of the seals has also numerous and mighty representatives in the 

 Arctic waters. In the sea of Bering we meet with the formidable sea lion and 

 the valuable sea-bear, while the harp-seal, the bearded seal, and the hispid seals 

 {Phoca groenlandica, harhata, hispida), spreading from the Parry Islands to 

 Novaja Zemlya, yield the tribute of their flesh to numerous wild tribes, and 

 that of their skins to the European hunter. 



Few Arctic animals are more valuable to man, or more frequently mentioned 

 in Polar voyages than the walrus or morse ( Trichechus rosmarus), which, 

 though allied to the seals, differs greatly from them by the development of the 

 canines of the upper jaw, which form two enormous tusks projecting down- 

 ward to the length of two feet. The morse is one of the largest quadrupeds ex- 

 isting, as it attains a length of twenty feet, and a weight of from fifteen hundred 

 to two thousand pounds. In uncouthness of form it surpasses even the ungain- 

 ly hippopotamus. It has a small head with a remarkably thick upper lip, cov- 

 ered with large pellucid whiskers or bristles ; the neck is thick and short ; the 

 naked gray or red-brown skin hangs loosely on the ponderous and elongated 

 trunk ; and the short feet terminate in broad fin-like paddles, resembling large 



