The Arctic regions and the northern whale-fishery

by William Scoresby

In many characters, this species resembles the physalis, though, I think, with an essential difference. The musculus is shorter, having a larger head and mouth, and a rounder under-jaw than the physalis and is said to feed principally upon herrings. Several individuals, apparently of this kind, have been stranded or killed on different parts of the coast of the United Kingdom. One was embayed and killed in Balta Sound, Shetland, in the winter of 1817-18, some remains of which I saw. It was eighty-two feet in length, the jaw-bones were twenty-one feet long, and the largest lamina of whalebone about three feet. Instead of hair at the inner edge, and at the point of each blade of whalebone, it had a fringe of bristly fibres, and it was stiffer, harder, and more horny in its texture than common whalebone. It produced only about five tons of oil, all of it of an inferior quality; some of it viscid and bad. It valued, deducting expenses, no more than £60 sterling. It had the usual sulci about the thorax, and a dorsal fin.

A smaller species of whale is Balænoptera jubartes of La Cepède, Balæna boops of Linnæus, or the finner of the whale-fishers.

The following is its description:—Length, about forty-six feet; greatest circumference of the body, about twenty feet; dorsal protuberance, or fin, about two feet and a half high; pectoral fins, four or five feet long externally, and scarcely a foot broad; tail, about three feet deep and ten broad; whalebone, about three hundred laminæ on each side, the longest about eighteen inches in length, the under-jaw about fifteen feet long, or one-third of the whole length of the animal; sulci, about two dozen in number; two external blow-holes; blubber on the body two or three inches thick, under the sulci none.

The last, and smallest of the whalebone whales, with which I am acquainted, is the Balænoptera acuto-rostrata of La Cepède, Balæna rostrata of Linnæus, or the beaked whale. An animal of this kind was killed in Scalpa Bay, November 14, 1808. Its length was seventeen and a half feet, circumference twenty. Pectoral fins, two feet long and seven inches broad; dorsal fin fifteen inches long by four and a half feet broad. Largest whalebone, about six inches. The rostrata is said to inhabit principally the Norwegian Seas, and to grow to the length of twenty-five feet. One of the species was killed near Spitzbergen, in 1813, and I have some of the whalebone in my possession.

Three species of narwals are noticed by La Cepède, though I myself have seen but one, and perhaps the other species are imaginary, for the animal varies in appearance. It is the Monodon monoceros of Linnæus, and the narwal, or unicorn, of whalers.

It is, when full grown, from thirteen to sixteen feet in length, exclusive of the tusk; and in circumference (two feet behind the fins, where it is thickest,) eight to nine feet. The form of the head, with the part of the body before the fins, is paraboloidal; of the middle of the body, nearly cylindrical; of the hinder-part, to within two or three feet of tail, somewhat conical, and from thence a ridge, commencing both at the back and belly; the section becomes first an ellipse, and then a rhombus, at the junction of the tail. At the distance of twelve or fourteen inches from the tail the perpendicular diameter is about twelve inches, the transverse diameter about seven. The head is about one-seventh of the whole length of the animal; it is small, blunt, round, and of a paraboloidal form. The mouth is small and not capable of much extension. The under-lip is wedge-shaped. The eyes are small, the largest diameter being only an inch, and are placed in a line with the opening of the mouth about thirteen inches from the snout. The blow-hole, which is directly over the eyes, is a single opening, of a semicircular form, about three and a half inches in diameter, or breadth, and one and a half radius, or length. The fins are twelve or fourteen inches long, and six or eight broad; the tail, from fifteen to twenty inches long, and three to four feet broad. It has no dorsal fin, but in place of it an irregular, sharpish, fatty ridge. The colour of the narwal is in the young animal blackish grey, on the back variegated with numerous darker spots, running into one another; in the older animals the ground is wholly white, or yellowish white. The integuments are similar to those of the mysticetus, only thinner.

A long prominent tusk, with which some narwals are furnished, is considered as a horn by the whale-fishers, and as such has given occasion for the name of unicorn being applied to this animal. This tusk occurs on the left side of the head, and is sometimes found of the length of nine or ten feet; according to Egedé, fourteen or fifteen. It springs from the lower part of the upper-jaw, points forward and a little downward, being parallel in its direction to the roof of the mouth. It is spirally situated from right to left, is nearly straight, and tapers to around, blunt point, is of a yellowish white colour, and consists of a compact kind of ivory. It is usually hollow from the base to within a few inches of the point. In a five feet tusk the diameter at the base is two and a quarter inches, and about three-eighths within an inch of the end. This external tusk is peculiar to the male, and there is another imbedded in the skull, on the right side of the head, about nine inches long. Two or three instances have occurred of male narwals having been taken, which had two large external tusks. The use of the tusk is ambiguous. It cannot be essential for procuring their food, nor for defence. Dr. Barclay is of opinion that it is principally a sexual distinction; and it appears not improbable that it is used in piercing the ice for convenience of breathing, without the animal being obliged to retreat to open water. If this latter supposition be correct, it affords another illustration of the wisdom of the great Creator, who has adapted in so many instances the organization of every animal to the locality which it inhabits.

A quantity of blubber, from two to three and a half inches in thickness, and amounting sometimes to above half a ton, encompasses the whole body of the narwal, and affords a large proportion of very fine oil. In a fine fatty substance about the internal ears of the narwal are found multitudes of worms. They are about an inch in length, some shorter, very slender, and taper both ways, but are sharper at one end than at the other. They are transparent. The vertebral column of the narwal is about twelve feet in length. The cervical vertebræ are seven in number, the dorsal twelve, the lumbar and caudal thirty-five. The spinal marrow appears to run through the processes of all the vertebræ from the head to the fortieth, but does not penetrate the forty-first. The ribs are twelve on each side, six true and six false, and are small for the size of the animal. The principal food of the narwal are molluscous animals. I have found remains of sepiæ in several stomachs which I have examined. Narwals are quick, active, inoffensive animals, and swim with considerable velocity. They appear in numerous little herds of half a dozen or more together, each herd being most frequently composed of animals of the same sex. When harpooned, the narwal dives with almost the velocity of the mysticetus, but not to the same extent; on returning to the surface it is dispatched with a lance in a few minutes.

Passing now from these tribes, a short space must be allotted to the description of the dolphins. The first is Delphinus deductor, defined by Dr. Traill, the ca’ing or leading whale. The following are its specific characters. Body thick, black; one short dorsal fin; pectoral fins long, narrow; head obtuse; upper jaw bent forward; teeth subconoid, sharp, and a little bent.

This animal grows to the length of about twenty-four feet, and is about ten feet in circumference. The skin is smooth, resembling oiled-silk; the colour a white blueish black on the back, and generally whitish on the belly; the blubber is three or four inches thick. The head is short and round; the upper jaw projects a little over the lower. Externally it has a single spiracle. The full grown have generally twenty-two to twenty-four teeth in each jaw, and when the mouth is shut, the teeth lock between one another like the teeth of a trap. The tail is about five feet broad, the dorsal fin about fifteen inches high, cartilaginous, and immovable.