THE NARWHAL, OR SEA UNICORN. 183 



A considerable number of notices have now been 

 collected of this curious animal, from which a toler- 

 ably accurate account may be given of its appearance 

 and habits ; one of the most accurate of these, with 

 an excellent drawing, was published by Dr. Fleming 

 in 1808, in vol. i. of the Trans, of the Wernerian 

 Soc. The length of the Narwhal is now usually stated, 

 in our more popular works, to be about fifteen or 

 sixteen feet, which is to be understood exclusive of 

 the tusk ; so that with this striking appendage, it 

 reaches to from twenty to twenty-six feet. The 

 animal which was stranded at Boston in Lincoln- 

 shire, and of which a drawing was sent by Sir 

 J. Banks to Lacepede, and from which he took the 

 characters of his Microcephalus, was stated to be 

 twenty-five feet long. This perfectly agrees with 

 Mr. Sowerby's account of the same specimen, which 

 was published one year after the Count's. Sir J. 

 Banks, in a letter to Dr. Fleming, states, that this 

 animal, when found, had buried the whole of its 

 body in the mud of which the beach was com- 

 posed, and seemed safely and securely waiting the 

 return of the tide (Brit. Mis. i. 17). Mr. Sowerby 

 moreover reports, that this individual, which was ex- 

 hibited both in London and Cambridge, was wholly 

 covered with a black and horny substance, like 

 some kinds of tortoise-shell, composed of laminae 

 an inch or more in thickness. Tulpius also states 

 the size of another, supposed to have been caught 

 near the Island of May, to have been twenty-two 

 feet. The head comprehends about one-seventh 



