188 THE NAJIWHAL, OR SEA UNICORN. 



them, or how a fish of any activity would have 

 permitted itself to be taken, and sucked down the 

 throat of a smooth-mouthed animal, without teeth 

 to detain and compress it." 



The eyes are small ; the orbit is oval, the iris 

 chestnut colour, the sclerotic white. According to 

 Scorseby, there are seven cervical, twelve dorsal, and 

 thirty-five lumber and caudal vertebi*se, in all fifity- 

 four. 



The Narwhal is regarded a migrating animal by 

 the Greenlanders ; its favourite resorts seem to be 

 amongst the ice of the Northern Pole, in the creeks 

 and bays of Greenland, Davis Straits, and Iceland. 

 In these locaUties it is occasionally very abundant, 

 while, when seen farther south, it appears as if it 

 had gone astray. Sohtary and separated from its 

 kind, it may be foimd wandering near the shores of 

 Britain, or of Northern Europe. We beheve it is 

 scarcely ever found in southern latitudes, and its 

 home seems to be between the 70^ and 80^ of 

 north latitude. 



A pleasing account is given of this animal in 

 the following quotation from Mr. Scorseby : — " A 

 great many Narwhals were often sporting about us, 

 sometimes in bands of fifteen or twenty together : 

 in several of them each animal had a long horn; 

 they were extremely playful, frequently elevating 

 their homs, and crossing them with each other as 

 in fencing. In the sporting of these animals they 

 frequently emitted a very unusual sound, resembling 

 the gurgling of water in the throat, which it probably 



