Narwals are quick, active, and inoffensive animals. They swim with considerable velocity. When harpooned they dive in the same manner as the whale, but not so deep. They generally descend about two hundred fathoms, after which they return to the surface, where they are dispatched, in a few minutes, with a lance.
118. The GREAT or GREENLAND WHALE (Balæna mysticetus, Pl. 1, Fig. 17) is a marine animal of immense magnitude, measuring from fifty to eighty feet in length, of which the head is nearly one third, and having several horny blades in the upper jaw, and a spiracle or breathing hole on the upper part of the head.
The bulk of these animals is such that their greatest circumference is nearly equal to their length; and their weight has been known to exceed 400,000 pounds. The mouth is of enormous size, extending as far back as to the eyes; and the tongue is sometimes eighteen or twenty feet in length, and nine or ten in width. Notwithstanding this, the gullet, or passage of the throat, is seldom more than four or five inches across. The eyes are situated a little above the corners of the mouth, and are scarcely larger than those of an ox; and the external opening of the ears, which are merely auditory holes, is likewise very small. There is a large fin on each side of the breast, and the horizontally flattened tail-fin is equal to about one sixth part of the length of the animal. On the back there is neither fin nor protuberance. The skin is very thick and strong, entirely destitute of hair, and always covered with an oily substance which issues through the pores, and which, when exposed to the rays of the sun, makes the surface appear as resplendent as that of polished metal. Whales vary much in colour; some being entirely black, others reddish, or black above and white beneath, and others variously mottled with black or brown and white.
The great whales are inhabitants of the ocean, and found chiefly in the Greenland and other seas, near the Arctic Pole; they, however, sometimes migrate so far south as to be seen in the neighbourhood of the British shores.
The animals of the whale tribe are of great use to mankind in a commercial view. They are pursued by the inhabitants of nearly all the maritime countries of Europe, and to us are not merely a source of profit, but, from the whale fishery requiring many ships, are the means of training a great number of seamen. To this fishery it is that we are indebted for those two valuable articles—whale or train oil, and whalebone.
The fat of all the whales has the name of blubber, and is principally found beneath the skin, to the depth of ten or twelve inches. Its use, to the animals, appears to be for the double purpose of poising their bodies, and keeping off the immediate contact of the water from the flesh, the continued cold of which, in the frozen climates of the North, would tend to chill the blood. The whalebone supplies, in these animals, the place of teeth, for catching and securing their food. It is attached to the upper jaw, and is arranged in thin plates or blades, sometimes near seven hundred in number, and parallel to each other on both sides of the mouth. The largest blades measure from ten to fifteen feet in length, and twelve or fifteen inches in width; and they all terminate in a kind of fringe of considerable length, which has the appearance of the blades split into innumerable small fibres. A large whale sometimes yields a ton and half of whalebone.
The number of ships employed in the whale fishery is very great; but, in consequence of the incessant pursuit of these animals for the last two centuries, their numbers have been greatly diminished. One of the most fortunate years that ever was known was 1697, when the following ships entered the bay of Greenland:
| 15 | from | Bremen, which had taken | 190 |
| 50 | from | Hamburgh | 515 |
| 121 | from | Holland | 1252 |
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| Total number of whales taken | 1957 | ||
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The year 1814 was a singularly prosperous one to the British whale fishery: 76 ships, fitted out from different ports of this country, obtained 1437 whales, besides seals, &c. The British ships, during four years, ending with 1817, returned with 5030 whales, which produced 54,508 tons of oil, and 2697 tons of whalebone.
The season for the whale-fishery commences in May, and continues through the months of June and July; but the ships must come away before the end of August, otherwise they might be blocked up and destroyed by the ice.