WHALES AND MERMAIDS 325 



Sometimes, but rarely, both teeth are thus developed. 

 The narwhal is seldom to be met with south of 65 North 

 latitude, but it has at least visited the British coasts 

 three times : once in 1678 it entered the Firth of Forth, 

 in 1800 it came near Boston in Lincolnshire, and in 

 1808 another visited Shetland. In the Middle Ages it 

 seems that the tusks of these animals were regarded as 

 unicorns' horns, and therefore, on account of the great 

 medical virtues attributed to them, fragments would 

 sometimes fetch more than ten times their weight in 

 gold. Old legends assert that the unicorn, when he 

 goes to drink, first dips his horn in the water to purify 

 it, and that other beasts delay to quench their thirst till 

 the unicorn has thus sweetened the water. 



Scoresby describes narwhals as extremely playful, 

 frequently elevating their horns and crossing them with 

 each other as in fencing, but they have never been 

 known to strike and pierce the bottoms of ships as 

 swordfish often do. The blubber is usually about three 

 inches in thickness and amounts to nearly half a ton in 

 weight. 



The beluga, or white whale, is a handsome animal of 

 the Arctic Seas and American coast, as far south, at 

 least, as the river St. Lawrence, which it ascends to a 

 considerable distance. It is about twelve feet long. In 

 the year 1815 one was observed for three months 

 swimming in the Firth of Forth. When met with in 

 " schools " (for they are gregarious animals), they are 

 not at all shy, but often follow ships in herds of thirty 

 or forty, and form a remarkable sight from the beautiful 

 white colour of the adult animals as they leap and 

 gambol in the midst of a calm, dark sea. The flesh 

 has been said to be fairly good eating. In the beluga 

 and all the cetaceans which remain to be noticed, 



