148 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF MAMMALIA. 



be transfixed by the dint of such a blow, far more easily 

 than was ever shield by the lance of knight in battle or 

 tournament. Several instances have indeed been known 

 in which the animal has plunged his weapon deep into 

 the thick oak timbers of a ship, when it has fortunately 

 snapped short, the fragment remaining fixed in the orifice, 

 so as to plug it up. A portion of wood taken from 

 the hull of a ship with a piece of narwhal's tusk firmly 

 imbedded in it came sorhe few years ago under our 

 own inspection. It is probably only in defence of the 

 females and their young, unless indeed when attacked 

 himself, that the male narwhal thus rushes against ships 

 or boats; for we utterly discredit the usual accounts of 

 its causeless and indiscriminate attacks upon any object 

 which approaches within its range. Doubtless when 

 wounded and harassed it becomes desperate ; and its 

 power, its velocity, and weapon combine to render it 

 formidable. 



The narwhal is gregarious, associating in troops of 

 from six or eight to twenty or more ; and numbers are 

 often seen clustered together, both in the open sea, and 

 in bays and inlets free from the ice, forming a compact 

 phalanx, moving gently and slowly along. Under such cir- 

 cumstances the independent movements of each individual 

 are necessarily embarrassed, so that a considerable slaugh- 

 ter may be easily effected among them. When attacked 

 at such a time, the hind ranks, instead of turning against 

 their assailants, press upon those before, sliding their 

 long weapons over the glossy backs of their leaders, and 

 all becomes disorder and confusion. Opportunities of 

 this kind are welcome to the Greenlanders, to whom 

 the narwhal is an important animal. Independently of 

 the oil, which the narwhal yields in considerable quantity 

 and of excellent quality, the flesh is much esteemed by 

 these people as food, and eaten both fresh and in a dried 

 and smoked state, being prepared over the fire of their 

 huts. The tendons of the muscles are useful in the pre- 

 paration of thin but tough cordage ; and Duhamel states 

 (see his ' Traite des Peches ') that several menibranous 

 sacs are obtained from the gullet, made use of as parts 



