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 8i° 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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