THE ORDER CETACEA. 



135 



The integuments are similar to those of the Baleena 

 mysticetus, only thinner. The cuticle is about the thick- 

 ness of paper: the rete mucosum three-eighths to three- 

 tenths of an inch in thickness ; the cutis or true skin thin, 

 but strong and compact on the outer side. 



A long prominent tusk, with which 

 some narwhales are furnished, is con- 

 sidered as a horn by the whalers ; and 

 as such, has given occasion to the 

 name of Unicorn being applied to 

 this animal. This tusk occurs on the 

 left side of the head, and is sometimes 

 of the length of nine or ten feet : one 

 caught by our seamen measured nine 

 and a quarter, and according to Hans. 

 Egede, they are generally fourteen or 

 fifteen.* It springs from the lower 

 part of the upper jaw, pointing forward 

 and a little downward ; being parallel in 

 its direction to the roof of the mouth. 

 It is spirally situated from right to left ; 

 is nearly straight, tapering to a round 

 blunt point; is of a yellowish -white 

 colour, and consists of a compact kind 

 of ivory. It is usually hollow from the Skull of the Nanvhale, 

 bore to within a few inches of the point. A five feet 

 tusk (about the average length) is about two and a 

 quarter diameter at the base, one and three-quarters in 

 the middle, and about three-eighths within an inch of 

 the end. In such a tusk, there are five or six turns of 

 the spiral, extending from the nose to within six or seven 

 inches of the point. Beyond this, the end is without 



V 



Description of Greenland, p. 77. 



