The Nature Library

HomeVolumesAmerican AnimalsDolphins and Porpoises

White Whale

Images coming soon.

Length
11 feet.
Description
Head rounded, neck slightly narrowed, flippers small and rounded, no fin on the back. Colour entirely white. Teeth 9 in each jaw.
Range
Arctic seas, straying southward rarely as far as Cape Cod.

The white whale is one of the characteristic animals of the frozen north and though forced a little southward by the ice of winter it rarely reaches the boundary of the United States. In early summer when the ice breaks up and the herring and other fishes throng the bays to spawn, the white whales pursue them and large numbers of the cetaceans are frequently stranded in shallow water where the Eskimos kill them with ease.