The polar and tropical worlds : a description of man and nature in the polar and equatorial regions of the globe . O TIIE POLAR WORLD. Thus we find an exuberance of life, in its smaller and smallest forms, peo-plins; the Arctic waters, and affording nourishment to a variety of strange andbulky creatures—cetaceans, walruses, and seals—which annually attract thou-sands of adventurous seamen to the icy ocean. Of these sea-manunalians, the most important to civilized man is undoubted-ly tlie (xreenland whale {Jiolana i)ii/sticetus), or smooth-back, thus called fromits having no dorsal fin. Formerl
The polar and tropical worlds : a description of man and nature in the polar and equatorial regions of the globe . O TIIE POLAR WORLD. Thus we find an exuberance of life, in its smaller and smallest forms, peo-plins; the Arctic waters, and affording nourishment to a variety of strange andbulky creatures—cetaceans, walruses, and seals—which annually attract thou-sands of adventurous seamen to the icy ocean. Of these sea-manunalians, the most important to civilized man is undoubted-ly tlie (xreenland whale {Jiolana i)ii/sticetus), or smooth-back, thus called fromits having no dorsal fin. Formerly these whales Avere harpooned in considerablenumbers in the Icelandic waters, or in tite fiords of Spitzbergen and DanishGreenland ; then Daviss Straits became the favorite fishing-grounds ; and morerecently the inlets and various channels to the east of Baffins Bay have beeninvaded ; while, on the opposite side of America, several hundreds of whalerspenetrate every year through Berings Straits into the icy sea beyond, wherej)reviously they lived and multiplied, unmolested except by the Esquimaux. *5- =^. THE WHALE. More fortunate than the smooth-back, the rorquals, or fin-whales [Baloenoj)-tcra boops, mKSCulits,2)h>/S(tl/s,nnd rostratus), sUW remain in their ancient seats,from which they are not likely to be dislodged, as the agility of their move-ments makes their capture more difiicult and dangerous ; while at the same timethe small quantity of their fat and the shortness of their baleen render it far lessremunerative. They are of a more slender form of body, and with a morepointed muzzle than the Greenland whale ; and while the latter attains a lengthof only sixty feet, the Baloinoptera hoops grows to the vast length of 100 feetand more. There is also a difference in their food, for the Greenland whalechierty feeds upon the minute animals that crowd the olive-colored waters abovedescribed, or on the hosts of little pteropods that are found in many parts ofthe Arctic
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, books, booksubjectnaturalhistory
