88 THE NARWAL. 



We may next consider the most remarkable pe- 

 culiarity which distinguishes this animal; the long 

 spiral tooth or tusk, which has obtained for it the 

 name of Unicorn. This tusk grows from the left 

 side of the head, and is sometimes nine or ten feet 

 long. Egede, in his description of Greenland, de- 

 scribes this tusk as being fourteen or fifteen feet 

 long. It projects from the inferior part of the up- 

 per jaw, and points forward and slightly down- 

 ward, being parallel in direction to the roof of the 

 mouth. It is spirally striated from right to left, 

 nearly straight, and tapers to a round blunt point. 

 It is of a yellowish white colour, and consists of a 

 compact kind of ivory, and is usually hollow from 

 'the base to within a few inches of the point. A 

 tusk of the average length, five feet, is about two inch- 

 es and a half in diameter at the base; one inch and 

 three fourths 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 base to within six or seven inches of the point. 

 Beyond this, the end is not striated, but smooth, 

 clean, and white; the striated part is usually gray 

 and dirty. The tusk is commonly covered with a 

 greasy blackish brown incrustation over the great- 

 est part of its surface; the under part and a few 

 inches of the point, are kept quite clear and polish- 

 ed by some use which prevents the adherence of 

 the matter just mentioned. A horn externally of 

 seven feet in length, is bedded about fifteen or 



