Part 12 (2/2)

”Seals when taken young,” says Captain Brown, ”are capable of being completely domesticated, will answer to their name, and follow their master from place to place. In January, 1819, a gentleman, in the neighbourhood of Burnt-island, county of Fife, in Scotland, completely succeeded in taming a seal. Its singularities attracted the curiosity of strangers daily. It appeared to possess all the sagacity of a dog, lived in its master's house, and ate from his hand. In his fis.h.i.+ng excursions, this gentleman generally took it with him, when it afforded no small entertainment. If thrown into the water, it would follow for miles the track of the boat; and although thrust back by the oars, it never relinquished its purpose. Indeed, it struggled so hard to regain its seat, that one would imagine its fondness for its master had entirely overcome the natural predilection for its native element.”

The Seal's Docility.

Notwithstanding the absence of external ears the common seal has a remarkable sense of hearing and a keen taste for sweet sounds. Seals have been known to follow a vessel, for miles, upon the deck of which a violin or a flute has been played. To quote Sir Walter Scott:

”Rude Heiskar's seals, through surges dark, Will long pursue the minstrel's bark.”

They are also easily tamed, when they are found to be exceedingly affectionate to those who treat them kindly. Some years ago a farmer, residing on the east coast of Scotland, close to the sea-sh.o.r.e, obtained a young seal for the amus.e.m.e.nt of his children, who soon became exceedingly fond of it. Some time after, the farmer, having had a bad year for his crops, was told by an old woman in the village that he would never prosper as long as he kept that seal on his ground. The foolish man giving heed to the superst.i.tion sent away the seal in a boat some distance from land. Towards evening, as the children were sitting on the sea-sh.o.r.e, what was their joy on beholding their seal rising out of the water, and making its way straight back to them again. For some months they were allowed to retain their pet; but as the farmer's prospects did not brighten, he again determined to get rid of it, and for that purpose, hearing of a s.h.i.+p that was soon to sail for the Baltic, took the little seal, and gave it in charge to some sailors, begging them to keep it in the hold of the s.h.i.+p till they arrived at their destination, and then to throw it into the sea. This was accordingly done, but the faithful seal was not to be daunted; ere long, it reappeared, to the great delight of the children, who begged their father never to send it away again. The farmer gave a doubtful a.s.sent, for a suspicion still lurked in his mind, owing to the superst.i.tious words of the old woman, that the presence of the seal had an evil effect upon his crops; and with these ideas preying upon his mind, the farmer conceived the cruel thought of putting out the seal's eyes with a view of preventing it from finding its way back, and again sending it away to sea. Unknown to his children, he carried this barbarous plan into execution; and they only discovered the loss of their favourite too late to aid in its recall, as the s.h.i.+p in which it had been placed had already sailed for Norway. Some days after the departure of the vessel, a fearful storm arose. The farmer and his family were glad enough to close up their shutters, and shut out as much as possible the wailings of the wind, as it swept in furious gusts round the house. They had scarcely retired to rest, when a faint and plaintive cry struck upon their ears--and repeated again it seemed to be--during the momentary lulls of the storm. The farmer continued to listen, but hearing nothing more, he descended to the front door and opened it; a dark object lay before him, on the very threshold, and stooping down to touch it, what was his astonishment to behold the poor blind, devoted little seal, apparently dead. The farmer was greatly touched; he took up the little body gently and carried it into the kitchen, and used every effort to restore it to life but in vain.

ORDER V.

Whales and Dolphins.

This order is divided into two sub-orders, the one characterised by the possession of teeth, and the other being toothless.

The Right Whale.

The Right Whale when fully grown, attains to from fifty to sixty-five feet in length, and to from thirty to forty feet in circ.u.mference. It is thickest behind the fins. When the mouth is open, it presents a cavity as large as a room, and capable of containing a boat full of men. Its tongue is said to be as large as a stout feather-bed. The tail is a powerful instrument of motion and defence: it is only five or six feet long, but its motions are rapid, and its strength immense. The eyes are situated in the sides of the head; they are very small, being little larger than those of an ox. The whale has no external ear, but there is a small orifice under the skin for the admission of sound. On the most elevated part of the head are two blow holes six or eight inches in length. The mouth, instead of teeth, has two rows of whalebone, each of which contains more than three hundred laminae, the longest of which are about ten or eleven feet. A large whale sometimes contains a ton and a half of whalebone. The colour of the old whale is gray and white, that of the young ones a sort of bluish black. Immediately beneath the skin lies the blubber, or fat; its thickness round the body is eight or ten or twenty inches, varying in different parts: the lips are composed almost entirely of blubber. A large whale yields about twenty tons of oil, which is expressed from the blubber. It is for this and the whalebone that this animal is deemed so valuable, and for which it is so much sought by whalefishers. The sense of seeing in the whale is very acute. Under the surface of the water they discover one another at an amazing distance. They have no voice, but in breathing or blowing they make a loud noise.

The usual rate at which whales swim seldom exceeds four miles an hour, but for a few minutes at a time they are capable of darting through the water with amazing velocity, and of ascending with such rapidity as to leap above the surface. This feat they perform as an amus.e.m.e.nt, apparently to the high admiration of distant spectators. Sometimes they throw themselves in a perpendicular posture, with the head downwards, and rearing their tails on high, beat the water with awful violence.

Sometimes they shake their tails in the air, which, cracking like a whip, resound to the distance of two or three miles. The flesh of the whale, though it would be rejected by the dainty palates of refined nations, is eaten with much relish by the Eskimo, and the inhabitants along the coasts of Hudson's Bay and Davis's Straits, who esteem it a staple article of subsistence.

Other whales of this sub-order are the common Fin Whale, which is said to reach eighty feet in length, the lesser Fin Whale and the Humpback Whale. In these, the yield of whalebone and oil is so small that they are not thought worth the trouble of catching.

The Sperm Whale.

The Sperm Whale rarely exceeds sixty feet in length and lives in warm regions, such as the Indian Ocean; rarely, if ever, visiting Arctic or European seas. Its yield of oil is said to be less than that of the Greenland whale but it is of a finer quality. Ambergris is also produced from the body of the sperm whale.

The Dolphin.

This is a large creature, so like the porpoise that he has been often confounded with it. He is, however, much larger, sometimes measuring from twenty to twenty-five feet in length. The body is roundish, growing gradually less towards the tail; the nose is long and pointed, the skin smooth, the back black or dusky blue, becoming white towards the belly.

He is entirely dest.i.tute of gills, or any similar aperture, but respires and also spouts water through a pipe of semi-circular form placed on the upper part of the head. There are several varieties of dolphins, including the Long-nosed Dolphins of the rivers of Asia and South America and the Cla.s.sical Dolphin of the Mediterranean (_Delphinus delphis_) The former are separately cla.s.sified, and the family of the latter includes the White Whale, the Narwhal, the Common Porpoise and the Grampus. The dolphin is gregarious in its habits, herding and travelling in large shoals. It may sometimes be seen sporting in the bays and rivers of New York and is always a pretty sight.

The White Whale.

The White Whale (_Beluga catodon_) is the whale which Dr. R. Brown calls _the_ whale of Greenland. It is the whale which the Greenlander and the Eskimo find so valuable for its oil and flesh, the latter of which they dry for winter use. They are sometimes called sea pigs, from a fancied resemblance they bear to the pig when floundering in the sea, and sometimes sea canaries, on account of their peculiar whistle, which resembles that of a bird.

The Narwhal.

The narwhal (_Monodon monoceros_) is found frequently in company with the white whale, and inhabits much the same geographical area. It is distinguished by the possession of a tusk, the aim and purpose of which has been much debated. ”It has been supposed to use it,” says Dr. Brown, ”to stir up its food from the bottom, but in such a case the female would be sadly at a loss. Fabricius thought that it was to keep the holes open in the ice during the winter; and the following occurrence seems to support this view. In April, 1860, a Greenlander was travelling along the ice in the vicinity of Christianshaab, and discovered one of those open s.p.a.ces in the ice, which, even in the most severe winters, remain open. In this hole hundreds of narwhals and white whales were protruding their heads to breathe, no other place presenting itself for miles around. It was described to me as an Arctic 'Black Hole of Calcutta' in the eagerness of the animals to keep at the place.”

”Neither the narwhal nor the white whale,” he continues, are timid animals, but will approach close to, and gambol for hours in the immediate vicinity of the s.h.i.+p.” The oil is highly esteemed, and the flesh is very palatable. The skin of the narwhal boiled to a jelly is looked upon, and justly so, as one of the prime dainties of a Greenlander.

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