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Show 1868.] OF THE GREENLAND SEAS. 543 with such force as to stun them for the time being, and before they recovered were drowned ; the Whale's nose was in nearly every instance covered with the mud of the bottom. This diving to the bottom is a favourite feat of young Whales ; and accordingly these frisky individuals are more difficult to capture than the adult ones of a more staid temperament. All species of Cetacea seem to pass a considerable portion of their time asleep on the surface of the water, and in this position they are often struck. The Right Whale always keeps near the land-floes of ice ; and its migrations north and west seem to be due to this habit*. After man, the chief enemy of the Whale is Orca gladiator, the most savage of all the Cetacea, and the only one which feeds upon other animals belonging to the order. The Thresher Shark ( Carcharias vulpes), the very existence of which Scoresby seemed to doubt, but which is now so comparatively well-known to naturalists and seamen, is also an enemy of the Whale. It is doubtful, however, whether it attacks it in life, or only preys upon it after death. The 'Advice' (Capt. A. Deuchars) once took a dead Whale alongside which this Shark was attacking in dozens, the belly being perfectly riddled by themf- The Greenland Shark (Scymnus borealis, Flem.), though it gorges itself with the dead Whale, does not appear to trouble it during life. Martens's most circumstantial account of the fight between the Whale and Swordfish seems to have originated in a misconception, this name being applied by seamen not only to the Scombroid fish (Xiphias), but also to the Orca, which, it is well-known, fights furiously with the Right Whale. The Whale must attain a great age, nor does it seem to be troubled with many diseases. Whales which are found floating dead are almost always found to have been wounded. They are often killed with harpoon-blades imbedded deep in the blubber; and some of them, from the marks on them, have been proved to be the remains of fights of a very ancient date in which the Whale has come off victor. (c) Geographical distribution and migrations.-The geographical distribution and migration of the Whale on the coast of Danish Greenland has been fully discussed by Eschricht and Reinhardt*];, and in the Spitzbergen sea by Scoresby §; so that I confine what few remarks I have to make on this subject to its range along the northern shores of Greenland and the western shores of Davis Strait and Baffin's Bay, where the whalers chase it. They appear on the coast of Danish Greenland early in May, but are not nearly so plentiful as formerly, when the Davis-Strait whaler generally pur- * Capt. Wells in the Dundee whaling steamer 'Arctic' ran, in the summer of . 1867, high up into Smith's Sound in search of Whales. He found open water and no Whales-a case of cause and effect (Sherard Osborn, Proc. Roy. Geogr.- Soc. vol. xii. p. 103, Feb. 10th, 1868). f The sailors have a notion that the Shark does not bite out the pieces, but cuts them by means of its curved dorsal fin, and seizes them as they drop into the water! This belief is widely and firmly received. % Ray Soc. M e m . Cet. § 'Arctic Regions,' 'Voyage to Greenland,' and 'Memoirs of the Wernerian Society of Edinburgh' (1811), vol. i. p. 578. |