BELUGA. 
41 $ 
served swimming in large shoals, the young ac- 
companying their parents, and the whole forming 
a beautiful spectacle, from the unusual colour. 
They are also observed to follow boats for a con- 
siderable time together. The head of this species 
is rather small than large ; and is joined to the 
body by a kind of almost imperceptible neck, or 
contracted part ; the spiracle is situated on the top 
of the head, and is internally double ; the eyes are 
very small, blueish, and the opening of the moqth 
by no means wide : the teeth are rather blunt, small, 
not very numerous, being about ten on each side, 
in both jaws ; the auditory passages are situated 
a little beyond 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 great whale. 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 shin 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 incurvation and 
extension of that part. It has so great a general af- 
finity 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. 
END OF THE SECOND VOLUME. 
