the North Atlantic or in the English seas, he says: “They seem to be
unprepared for, or not adapted for, shallow seas. Accustomed (perhaps
not individually, but by hereditary practice or instinct) to swim along
the coral islands of the Pacific within a stone’s throw from the shore,
they cannot understand, their instinct is not prepared to meet, shallow
coasts and projecting headlands. If they were habitual residents in
our seas, they must either be speedily extirpated, learn more caution,
or be developed into a new species.” ... Mr. Murray further says: “I
observe that almost every place that has been above mentioned as a
favourite resort of the Sperm Whales, although not out of soundings,
has claims to be considered the site of submerged land. The islands in
the Polynesia, which are its special feeding-ground, are the beacons
left by the submerged Pacific continent. In pure deep seas animal life
is usually scarce, and the absence of breeding-ground is probably the
chief cause of it; but this only applies to a certain kind of animals,
those which require a bottom on which to deposit their spawn; but there
are many which do not require this. The spawn of some floats about
unattached; for others a frond of weed is sufficient attachment; and
it has occurred to me that the distribution of the Sperm Whale may in
some way be connected with the geological antecedents of the ocean it
inhabits. I think it not improbable that the site of a submerged land
may swarm with life, which originally proceeded, or was dependent on
it, long after it had been in the deep bosom of the ocean buried. The
Sargasso seas, which swarm with _Eolidæ_ and _Crustacea_, are examples
of this life; it is not invariably either present or absent in deep
water, and it is its presence or its absence which is instructive.
Those animals which required a bottom to spawn upon may have died out
or been developed into others which do not; and those which do not
require such a support may have multiplied correspondingly. In one of
the maps in Lieutenant Maury’s book, already cited, there is a space
of sea opposite the western coast of South America, and lying between
Patagonia and New Zealand, marked ‘Desolate region, distinguished
by the absence of animal or vegetable life’;--no Sperm Whales
here--nothing for them to feed upon--and no symptoms, either by banks
of Sargasso or coral islets, of any land ever having existed there.
There is no apparent reason why this place, except from some special
cause peculiar to itself, should be more desolate than any other in the
same latitude--than the deep sea on the east side of Patagonia, for
example. I can imagine that, if the bottom of the sea should subside
gradually, where animal life had once abounded, animal life--not that
animal life, but animal life due in some way to it--might continue
to linger over it long after it had passed beyond the depth at which
it could practically have any effect upon the animal life above it;
but if a part of the circumference of the globe has always been under
water, before and ever since the creation of life, no life is likely
to be found on that spot, because it has never had a starting-point
of life from which to begin; and, as already said, a slender barrier
stops the spread of species, and species would certainly not spread to
a spot where there was nothing for them to feed upon. Again, animal
life could not begin to feed upon animal life till vegetable life had
previously prepared the way, by providing food for the animals which
were to furnish food for others; and vegetable life could not begin to
grow without a foundation of land, accessible either above or below
water. The total and constant absence of all life at any particular
spot appears to me, therefore, to furnish a presumption that there has
never been dry land or shallow water there. Whether the continuance of
deep water in one spot for some interminably long time might not have
the same effect is another question, which, whatever way it may be
answered, would not affect my explanation of the cause of the absence
of the Sperm Whale from such spots.”[31]
The woodcuts (figs. 17 and 18), representing the chair in Yarmouth
Church, which is formed of part of the skull of an individual of this
species, are from the ‘Purlestrations of Great Yarmouth,’ by Mr. C. J.
Palmer.
THE ZIPHIOID WHALES.
The sub-family _Ziphiinæ_, which follows next, is, perhaps, the most
remarkable of the whole of this interesting order. The _Ziphioid_
Whales, as they are designated, are, for the most part, very rare, and
until the commencement of the present century, with one exception, were
known to science only from their numerous remains, found chiefly in the
Crag deposits. Even so recently as 1871, Professor Flower, in a memoir
of this group[32] speaks of their occurrence at irregular intervals,
and at various and most distant parts of the world, to the number of
about 30 individuals, in all cases solitary, and that their habits were
almost absolutely unknown. Since that time, however, very considerable
additions have been made to our knowledge of the group, and Professor
Flower, in a second contribution on the same subject[33] made in 1877,
states that “instead of being so rare as was then supposed, since the
attention of naturalists resident in our colonies has been directed to
the importance of losing no opportunity of securing such specimens as
accidents of wind and waves may cast upon their shores, it has been
proved that in the seas of the Southern Hemisphere these Whales exist
in considerable numbers, both as species and as individuals, and that
one species, at least [_Mesoplodon grayi_] is gregarious, having been
met with in two instances in ‘schools’ of considerable numbers.” “The
geographical distribution of the group,” adds Professor Flower[34] “has
a very great interest in relation to that of many other Australian
groups, both of vertebrates and invertebrates. Among the earliest known
remains of Cetacea, in the Belgian and Suffolk Crags, _Mesoplodon_
and closely-allied forms are most abundant. Up to a little more than
ten years ago, the few stray individuals of _Mesoplodon bidens_
occasionally stranded on the shores of North Europe, were supposed to
be their sole survivors. Since that time it has been proved that they
are still numerous in species, and even in individuals ... in the seas
which surround the Australian continent, extending from the Cape of
Good Hope on the one side, to New Zealand on the other, though beyond
these limits no specimens have yet been met with. It is the history
of the Marsupial Mammals, of _Ceratodus_, of _Terebratula_, and of
numerous other forms.”
The group is divided into four genera--_Hyperoodon_, _Berardius_,
_Ziphius_, and _Mesoplodon_ (the second of which is not represented in
our Fauna). Its members were formerly distinguished by the absence
of functional teeth in the upper jaw, but, recently, a row of small
teeth, of determinate number and definite form, has been discovered
in many individuals of a species of _Mesoplodon_. The teeth in the
lower jaw are always quite rudimentary, with the exception of one, or
occasionally, two pairs. These may be largely developed, especially
in the male sex, and are placed, generally, well forward. “They have
a small and pointed enamel-covered crown, composed of true dentine,
which, instead of surmounting a root of the ordinary character, is
raised upon a solid mass of osteo-dentine, the continuous growth of
which greatly alters the form and general appearance of the organ as
age advances.” In _Mesoplodon layardi_ this little dentine cap is not
larger than the portion of the tooth ordinarily shown above the gum,
but the fang-like growth is so great that the tips of the “tusks” meet
over the upper jaw, so that the animal is only able to open its mouth
for a very short distance indeed. The form assumed in _Mesoplodon
bidens_ will be seen in the figure of the head of that species, at p.
104. The blow-hole is sub-crescentic, and a pair of remarkable furrows
occurs in the skin of the throat, almost in the form of the letter V,
the point directed forward. The skull presents a remarkable appearance
in the genus _Hyperoodon_, caused by the enormous maxillary crests
which produce the peculiar conformation of the head in the living
animal, originating the trivial name “Bottle-head.” The food of the
whole group is said to consist mainly of _Loligo_, commonly called
“Squid,” and other Cephalopods which frequent the open sea.
One very singular circumstance with regard to these creatures is that
they never seem to be taken at sea, but, whenever procured, it is by
their running themselves on shore. This, as before remarked with regard
to the Sperm Whale, would seem to indicate that their natural habitat
is the deep waters of the open seas, where shallows are unknown. The
sand-banks which surround a sloping shore, of which they have had no
experience, speedily prove fatal to them.
BEAKED WHALE.
The common BEAKED WHALE, or BOTTLE-HEAD (_Hyperoodon rostratum_,
Chemnitz; _Hyperoodon butzkopf_, Lacépède), is of frequent occurrence
in the North Atlantic, and generally visits our shores in autumn,
sometimes ascending the estuaries of rivers: it has been taken several
times at the entrance to the river Ouse. It is solitary in its habits,
more than two being never met with in the same place, and in that
case it is often the old female and her young one: the old male is
said to be very shy and rarely secured. In September, 1877, an adult
female, 24 ft. long, was taken in the Menai Straits; it was accompanied
by another, probably its young one. Capt. Feilden met with what he
believes to have been this species, just within the Arctic Circle;
“each emission of breath was accompanied by a stentorian grunt, which
closely resembled that of an elephant.”[35]
The colour is black above, the under parts being lighter: the two teeth
in the lower jaw are generally hidden in the gum. Its food consists of
cuttlefish, the remains of great numbers of which have been found in
its stomach.
BROAD-FRONTED BEAKED WHALE.
Another species of _Hyperoodon_, for which the name _H. latifrons_
has been proposed, is by some supposed to exist. Scarcely anything is
known about it as a species. “The principal distinctive characters of
the skull lie in the great raised crests of the maxillary bones, which
are very much thickened and flattened above, so as almost to touch
one another, whereas, in _H. rostratum_, they are rather sharp-edged
above, and separated by a considerable interval. In _H. latifrons_,
these crests rise absolutely _higher_ than the occipital region of the
skull, which is not the case in the common species.”[36] Individuals
possessing these peculiarities have been taken three or four times
on the British coast, and on one occasion, in Greenland. Another
was stranded in 1873, at Hasvig, near Hammerfest, and identified by
Professor Sars from its remains; its length was 30 feet (Norse), and
the colour dark on the back, but lighter beneath.[37] It has, however,
been suggested, with much probability, by Eschricht, that these
individuals are, after all, only the males of the preceding species;
for all the specimens with broad crests, of which the sex was noted,
were males.
CUVIER’S WHALE.
CUVIER’S WHALE (_Ziphius cavirostris_, Cuv.; _Epiodon desmarestii_,
J. E. Gray, ‘Cat. Seals and Whales’), another of this remarkable
group, has been met with once on the coast of Shetland, and it, or
its remains, have been found about five or six times in other parts
of Europe, and also, it is believed, at the Cape of Good Hope, the
east coast of South America, and New Zealand. Professor Turner is of
opinion that the geographical range of _Ziphius cavirostris_ equals
that possessed by the Spermaceti Whale.[38] In colour this species is
believed to resemble Sowerby’s Whale; it has two teeth, one on each
side of the lower jaw, close to the extremity.
[Illustration: Fig. 21. HEAD OF SOWERBY’S WHALE (_Mesoplodon
sowerbiensis_, De Blainville).
From Trans. Roy. Irish Acad.]
Cuvier established the genus _Ziphius_ in 1825, from a fossil skull
found on the coast of Provence in 1804, which he believed at the time
to belong to an extinct animal.
SOWERBY’S WHALE.
One more British Ziphioid is known, SOWERBY’S WHALE (_Mesoplodon
sowerbiensis_, De Blainville); it was first described from a specimen
which came ashore at Brodie, Elginshire, in 1800, and has since been
found three times in Ireland; there is also a skull in the Museum of
Science and Art at Edinburgh, which belonged to a specimen believed to
have been captured somewhere on the Scotch coast; the remains of five
others are preserved in various Continental museums.
Of the individual which came on shore on the coast of Kerry, in March,
1864, Mr. Andrews has given a description in the “Transactions of the
Royal Irish Academy,” for April, 1867. Fortunately, it came under
the notice of Dr. Busteed, of Castle Gregory, who being interested
in zoology, and aware of the great importance of the occurrence,
photographed the head in several positions while it was yet fresh: Dr.
Busteed’s photographs were reproduced in the Transactions of the Royal
Irish Academy. The head had unfortunately been removed immediately
behind the frontal portion of the skull, the base of which is lost,
as are also the other parts of the skeleton. The total length of the
animal was about fifteen feet, the two teeth largely developed and
projecting like the tusks of a boar. On the under part of the throat
the V-shaped furrow was very conspicuous. Sowerby’s specimen was
coloured black above, and nearly white below. The skin was smooth like
satin. “Immediately under the cuticle the sides were completely covered
with white vermicular streaks in every direction, which at a little
distance appeared like irregular cuts with a sharp instrument.”
_DELPHINIDÆ._
The remaining family, _Delphinidæ_, as before stated, is a very
numerous one. It has ten representatives in the British fauna,
contained in seven genera, the first of which, according to the
arrangement I have adopted, is that of _Monodon_.
THE NARWHAL.
The NARWHAL (_Monodon monoceros_, Linn.) is a native of the Polar seas
seldom leaving the ice; stragglers have occurred three times on the
British coast, one in 1648 in the Firth of Forth, another came ashore
alive at Boston, in 1800; the third was taken in Shetland in 1808.
This species is very numerous in the frozen seas to the north of
latitude 65°, and is remarkable for the enormous development in the
male of the left canine tooth, which is projected forward in the form
of a tusk or spear, reaching to the length of six or eight feet, while
the right tusk remains abortive, and does not pierce the alveolus. The
spear is of fine compact ivory, hollow for the greater part of its
length, grooved spirally from left to right, along its outer surface,
the spiral generally making five or six turns, but smooth at the end,
and bluntly pointed. Although the right canine is rarely developed, a
few examples have occurred in which both tusks were present; the female
is very rarely furnished with this appendage.
Mr. J. W. Clark, in a paper on a ‘Skeleton of Narwhal, with two
fully-developed tusks,’[39] writes as follows:--“The skulls of the
Toothed Whales are generally asymmetrical, being twisted more or less,
usually towards the left. This peculiarity is especially observable in
Monodon. One would expect it to be greatly exaggerated in the skulls
of the males, where the left tusk alone is developed, and the left
maxillary is, in consequence, very large, and the right proportionately
small; but it does not seem to be affected by the absence or presence
of the teeth. Female skulls, where neither tusk is developed, are
equally twisted, and so are the bidental skulls ... the increased size
of the right maxillary does not appear to affect the rest of the skull.”
Mr. Clark enumerates eleven skulls of the Narwhal in which both tusks
are developed; four at Copenhagen, and one each in the museum of
Hamburg, Christiania, Amsterdam, Weimar, Hull, Paris, and Cambridge; to
these must be added a twelfth, which was brought from Prince Regent’s
Inlet, by Capt. Gravill, of the “Camperdown,” and is now in the Dundee
Museum.
Not long since I saw preserved in a country mansion, the tusk of a
Narwhal measuring 7 ft. 5 in. long; it was carefully kept in a long
case resembling a barber’s pole, and bore a ticket attached, which
stated that it was “Bequeathed in 1561 by the Countess of ----, to her
daughter ----.” No doubt at the time this formed a valuable bequest,
as even royal and ecclesiastical dignitaries are said to have esteemed
these strange objects (probably associated with the mythical unicorn),
as “good against” poisons and fevers, and prized them accordingly. The
use of this remarkable appendage appears very doubtful; it has been
conjectured that it serves to stir up food from the bottom of the sea,
in which case the female would be badly off without it; or that it is
employed to keep breathing-holes open in the ice, and an instance is
related in support of this view, in which hundreds were seen at an
ice-hole protruding their heads to breathe, but it is not clear whether
they made the hole for themselves, or whether they were attracted by
it, particularly as there were numbers of White Whales with them. It
seems certain, however, that the tusk, which is frequently found in a
broken condition, is used for purposes of attack and defence. Like the
horn of the stag, it is, no doubt, a sexual distinction.
The Narwhal is very social in its habits, great numbers being often
met with together; its food consists of cuttlefish and crustaceans.
The length of the full-grown animal is about 16 feet, the upper parts
gray, the sides and belly white, and the whole animal spotted with
black and gray. The only authentic figure of the Narwhal with which I
am acquainted is that given by Scoresby; this is so well known from
frequent reproduction that it is not necessary to give it here.
THE WHITE WHALE.
The WHITE WHALE, or BELUGA (_Delphinapterus leucas_, Pallas), like the
preceding species, is a native of the Polar seas, where it is common;
it is abundant in the White and Kara Seas, and in the Gulf of Obi;
on the coast of Norway it is occasionally met with. From Scotland,
five individuals have been recorded, but it must be regarded as only
an accidental straggler. On the east coast of America it is found as
far south as the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where, as in the White Sea, it
delights in ascending the mouths of large rivers.
No English examples have been met with, but, in the British Association
Report on the Fauna of Devonshire (1869, pp. 84 and 85) occurs the
following passage. “Mr. H. P. Gosse writes:--‘On August 5th, 1832, I
was returning from Newfoundland to England, and was sailing up the
British Channel close to the land, when, just off Berry Head, I saw
under the ship’s bows a large cetacean of a milky white hue, but
appearing slightly tinged with green from the intervening stratum
of clear water. It was about 16 feet long, with a round bluff head.
It continued to swim along before the vessel’s head, a few yards
beneath the surface, for about ten minutes, maintaining our rate of
speed, which was five knots an hour, all which time I enjoyed from the
bow-sprit a very good view of it. It could have been no other than the
White Whale, the _B. borealis_ of Lesson.’” Mr. Alston also states that
Mr. J. G. Gordon informed him that in June, 1878, “he saw a large white
cetacean, presumably of this species, in Loch Etive.”
[Illustration: Fig. 22. BELUGA, caught by the tail, near Dunrobin,
Sutherlandshire.]
In a communication to the Zoological Society of London,[40] quoting
a letter from the Rev. Dr. Joass, of Golspie, Professor Flower thus
describes the singular capture of one of these rare visitants to our
seas:--“It was found close to the salmon-nets, near the Little Ferry,
about three miles to the westward of Dunrobin, Sutherlandshire, at ebb
tide, on Monday, June 9th, 1879, caught by the tail between two short
posts, to which a stake-net was fastened; and a salmon, of 18 lbs.
weight, which was supposed to have been the object of its pursuit,
was found in front of it. It measured 12 ft. 6 in. in length. The
tail was 34 inches across, and the flippers 17 inches long. It was a
female [adult] and had twenty teeth in the upper jaw, and sixteen in
the lower. the stomach contained a few flakes of fish, which, from
their size and colour, might have been salmon.... I have heard since,
that two days before its capture, it was seen off Cracaig by Brora
fishermen, who were lying at their lines. At first they thought it was
a human body; as it approached, _against the ebb_, they took it for
a ghost!” On examining the skull of this specimen, Professor Flower
discovered that, at some previous period of the animal’s existence,
the atlas had been completely dislocated, “the whole of the surfaces,
formerly in apposition, being now free from each other,” an injury to
an aquatic animal as difficult to account for as it is to imagine the
possibility of its surviving, but affording a remarkable instance of
the creature’s recuperative power.
The Whales exhibited at the Westminster Aquarium, in September, 1877,
and again in May, 1878, belonged to this species; unfortunately they
did not live to equal in docility and intelligence a specimen exhibited
in America, which “learned to recognize his keeper, and would allow
himself to be handled by him, and at the proper time would come and
put his head out of the water to receive the harness” by which he was
attached to a car in which he drew a young lady round the tank,--or
to take his food. A specimen of _Delphinus tursio_, which was for a
time with him in the same tank, is said to have been even more docile
than this remarkable animal.[41] The adult Beluga is pure white, and a
“school” of these animals “leaping and playing in the calm, dark sea,”
is said to be a very beautiful sight. In summer the Greenlanders kill
great numbers, extracting the oil and drying the flesh for winter use;
in Russia, the prepared skin is much used for reins or other parts of
harness requiring great strength and lightness; in this country, too,
under the name of porpoise-hide, it is now extensively used, and the
salted skins sell for from 3s. 6d. to 4s. 6d. per lb. The whale-ship,
“Arctic,” of Dundee, brought home 600 skins from Davis Strait, in the
season of 1880. The length of the full-grown animal is about 16 ft.,
and its food consists of fishes, Crustacea, and Cephalapods.
[Illustration: Fig. 23. THE GRAMPUS (_Orca gladiator_, Lacép.)]
THE GRAMPUS, OR KILLER.
The common GRAMPUS, or KILLER (_Orca gladiator_, Lacépède), (fig. 23)
is a well-known and widely-dispersed species, being found in both the
North Atlantic and Pacific Seas. Andrew Murray says “the common Grampus
tumbles through the heavy waves all the way from Britain to Japan,
_viâ_ the North-west Passage.” In the British seas it is frequently met
with, and has occurred in several instances on the coast of Norfolk.
This species is very fierce, its appetite insatiable, and carnivorous
in the strictest sense of the word; to the Greenland and White Whale,
as well as to Porpoises and Seals, it is an implacable enemy, and
follows them ruthlessly. Dr. Brown says, “the White Whale and Seals
often run ashore, in terror of this cetacean, and I have seen Seals
spring out of the water when pursued by it. The whalers hate to see it,
for its arrival is the signal for every Whale to leave that portion of
the ice.” Eschricht took out of the stomach of a Killer, 21 ft. long,
which came ashore in Jutland, no less than thirteen common porpoises
and fourteen Seals.