THE NAUWAL. 87 



elder animals, the ground is wholly white, or yel- 

 lowish white, with dark gray or blackish spots of 

 different degrees of intensity. These spots are of 

 a roundish or oblong form: on the back, where they 

 seldom exceed two inches in diameter, they are the 

 darkest and most crowded together, yet with intervals 

 of pure white among them. On the sides, the spots 

 are fainter, smaller and more open. On the belly 

 they are extremely faint and few, and being in con- 

 siderable surfaces, are not distinguishable. A close 

 patch of brownish black, without any white, is often 

 found on the upper part of the neck, just behind the 

 blowhole: the external part of the fins is also gene- 

 rally black at the edges, but grayish about the mid- 

 dle. The superior side of the tail is also blackish* 

 around the edges: but in the middle, gray with black 

 curvilinear streaks, on a white ground, forming 

 semicircular figures on each lobe. The inferior sur- 

 faces of the fins and tail are similar to the upper, 

 only much paler coloured, the middle of the fins 

 being white, and of the tail a pale gray. The 

 sucker narwals are almost uniformly of a bluish 

 gray or slate colour. Very old individuals be- 

 come almost white. 



The skin of the narwal, resembles that of the 

 whale, except that it is thinner. The cuticle is 

 about as thick as writing paper; the rete mucosum 

 three eighths or three tenths of an inch thick; the 

 cutis thin, but strong and compact on the outerside. 



