Volume 16, Plate XV / Mammalia (Mammals)

Beluga, or White Whale

Highly symmetrical and shaped like a double cone, twelve to twenty feet long and usually a beautiful uniform cream colour, the young marked with brownish spots, it swims with the velocity of an arrow by means of its powerful tail. Pursuing cod, haddock and flounders with ardour, it frequents the higher Arctic latitudes, ascending great rivers in herds and proving most useful to the Greenland natives.