Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 126.djvu/520

508 that the shark is insensible to pain, and that Petersen, who was his interpreter in the voyage of the "Fox" related how he had plunged a long knife into the head of one which was feeding on a white whale entangled in his net, but that the brute continued its repast notwithstanding. As Sir Leopold remarks, it must be remembered that the brain of a shark is extremely small compared with the size of its huge head, and he says that he himself has seen bullets fired through them with very little apparent effect, but that if these creatures can feel, the devices practised upon them by the Esquimaux must be cruel indeed. The dogs of the hunters are not allowed to eat either the skin or the head, the former being very rough, and the latter producing giddiness and sickness.

As we have mentioned above, the cetaceans are hardly fish, for in many respects they may be classed with land-animals, since they produce their young alive and nourish it by giving it suck; their skin is smooth, and in some cases covered with hair, not scaly like that of fish; their blood too is warm, and their flesh tastes something like beef. Being also provided with a heart, ventricles, and lungs, they cannot, as fish can through their gills, separate the air from the water, and therefore must come to the surface to breathe. Still they can inhale sufficient air to last them for a long time under water, and herein they differ from land animals. They are, too, provided with fins and tails, and though these are not exactly similar to those of fish, still they are used in somewhat the same manner. But they differ from both fish and beast in having a layer of fat called blubber, varying in thickness up to ten inches, which more frequently exudes from them when wounded in the water than blood does. This blubber, under pressure, yields its own bulk of oil, and is used in the latter state by the Esquimaux to light their huts and cook their food. Frozen bits of blubber in thin slices are esteemed a great delicacy among these people, though it takes some time before an English palate becomes used to such a bonne bouche.

The largest of these cetaceans is the whale, of which species the spermaceti whale is the biggest. It is found, indeed, off the coasts of North America, but is more common in the Antarctic than in the Arctic regions. The great Greenland whale is the one most sought for by the whalers of Baffin's Bay, for besides being commoner, it yields a much greater amount of oil, though that of a spermaceti whale, as its name implies, is mixed with the substance called spermaceti, and is therefore the more valuable. Besides this, ambergris is also obtained from the spermaceti whale. The razorback whale is also much larger than the great Greenland whale, and is a very powerful monster, so much so that the Arctic hunters, as a rule, fight shy of it. There are various other kinds of whale of a smaller description, among which we may mention the broad-nosed whale, the beaked whale, and the finner, which are sometimes found off Norway and Shetland, but as they do not yield much oil, they are not thought worth the killing. The white whale is so shy an animal that it can seldom be killed with either a rifle-ball or harpoon, and is therefore generally captured by means of a net. At that part of Baffin's Bay, however, where the Clay River runs in and greatly discolours the water, turning it into a thick, muddy colour, great success is said to attend the white-whale fishing in the autumn when these animals migrate southwards, having been north evidently to breed, as they return accompanied by numbers of young "calves." As whales live on sea-blubber, they are generally found in the green water. In winter they go south, but where is unknown.

Narwhals, or sea-unicorns, so called from the horn which projects from the upper jaw, are seen in great numbers in Baffin's Bay during certain seasons, especially just before they begin to travel northwards in March. Their flesh is considered a great luxury by the Esquimaux, as also is the skin, which acts as an anti-scorbutic. The object of the horn is a disputed point, for while its point is too blunt for offence, it is well polished for about four inches, and the rest usually covered with slime and seaweed, so that it is conjectured that it must be employed either to root up food from the bottom of the sea, or else to drive out small fish from the clefts and fissures of floating ice, where they take refuge when pursued by their enemy the narwhal. As the mode of catching the whale has been so often described, we do not propose now entering upon it, especially as we would rather touch upon the manner of capturing the walruses and seals, which are the two chief objects of pursuit to the natives of Greenland during the winter months. Like the cetaceans, these animals, though able to take 