C E T ACE A. 



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a more compact texture than that of the teeth of the 

 elephant, though it is perhaps more brittle. It is not, 

 however, so liable to turn yellow as that kind of 

 ivory, and is perhaps, on the whole, the more beauti- 

 ful substance of the two. 



Notwithstanding the powerful weapon with which 

 it is furnished, the narwhal appears to be a very 

 inoffensive animal, and even kind and gentle. It has 

 been sometimes said that it attacks the whale, and 

 gores it with this formidable horn ; but the probabi- 

 lity is, that the narwhal has, in these instances, been 

 mistaken for the sword fish, which, though belonging 

 to a different class of animals, is much more preda- 

 tory and voracious than the narwhal. Indeed, if we 

 except the whalebone whales, the narwhal is perhaps . 

 the least offensive of all the large inhabitants of the i 

 sea. These animals are usually found in the bays or | 

 open places of the northern ice ; and, when they 

 are annoyed there, they huddle together till they 

 are apt to injure each other with their tusks ; but 

 even then they offer no violence to any other 

 creature. 



But they are of considerable value to man. The 

 oil is, as we have said, of very fine quality, and the 

 people of the northern countries are very fond of the 

 flesh, and also of the intestines. They use the horn, 

 or tooth, as timber, for which purpose it is well 

 adapted, being both strong and beautiful. The king 

 of Denmark is said to have a beautiful throne wholly 

 composed of this material, which is carefully pre- 

 served in the castle of Rosenburgh ; and in this 

 country the large teeth are sometimes used as bed- 

 posts., and the smaller ones as walking-sticks, for 

 which, though rather heavy, they are not otherwise ill 

 adapted. 



Monodon microcephahts. The head of this species 

 is, as the name implies, smaller than that of the other. 

 It is of about the same length, or sometimes longer, 

 being met with as much as twenty-six feet long, 

 though it is found in smaller sizes, and sometimes 

 not exceeding twelve feet. Its body is narrower 

 than that of the common narwhal ; and the ridge on 

 its back is not so prominent. The upper part is also 

 darker in the general colour, which renders the spots I 

 upon it less apparent. The spots on the sides are ' 

 much more apparent than those on the back, and the 

 belly is pure white. The skin is smooth and glossy, 

 very thin, and firmly united to the adipose tissue. 

 The mouth of this species is very small, the upper 

 lip extending- a little beyond the lower. The eye is 

 far back, just immediately under the blow-hole ; it is 

 about an inch in diameter, and has the iris of a 

 chestnut colour. 



This species appears to be much more discursive 

 in its habits than the common narwhal, having been 

 found, not only on the coasts of the northern islands, 

 Shetland in particular, but also, at least in one in- 

 stance, upon the coast of England, near Boston in 

 Lincolnshire. The individuals which come so far to 

 the south must, however, be considered as stragglers ; 

 and though they are more frequent on the coast of 

 Shetland than on any place farther to the south, they 

 are only occasional visitants even there. It is pro- 

 bable that this species, on some of its southerly 

 excursions, has been mistaken for the common nar- 

 whal, an animal which does not appear ever to have 

 boon seen out of its polar haunts, though in these it is 

 no means rare. 



The Anarnak (Anarnacus Grcenlandicus). This 



species, of which the history is very obscure, is un- 

 questionably entitled to rank as u distinct genus, and 

 not as a " spurious narwhal," as it has sometimes 

 been called. 



This species, like the former, is an inhabitant of 

 the Greenland seas ; but, according to the accounts, 

 it keeps much more at sea than they do, and is, in 

 consequence, much less frequently seen. It is also 

 an animal of much less interest to the Greenlanders 

 and other natives of the extreme north. It is but of 

 small size, perhaps the smallest of all the cetacea; 

 and, as one might infer from its seaward habits, it 

 contains but little fat. Pelagic, or wide-sea animals, 

 whether mammalia or fishes, are generally very fast 

 swimmers, have their flesh firm and rather dry, and 

 seldom have much fat upon them ; and the anarnak 

 does not form an exception to this general rule. 

 Besides, it has been mentioned that the flesh of this 

 animal has a cathartic or purgative quality, which 

 renders it unwholesome for food ; and there is no 

 part of it to compensate the fishermen for the trouble 

 of capturing it, which is considerable, as it drives 

 about in the open water, and cannot be driven into 

 bays, as is the case with the narwhals. 



This animal is of nearly the same shape as the 

 others, but its colour is black, and it has a fin on the 

 back. The teeth are also very different, though they 

 belong to the same class as the narwhals. They 

 project from the snout, as in these species, and con- 

 sequently are of no use either in the capture or kill- 

 ing of its food. They are very short and curved, 

 and though the small portion that there is of them is 

 compact ivory, they answer none of the purposes to 

 which the teeth of the narwhals are applied. Their 

 length is only about an inch, while the tooth of the 

 narwhal is often six feet or more. Of these teeth 

 there are generally two, as they are not subject to 

 the same casualties as the longer teeth of the nar- 

 whals, though there are instances in which only one 

 tooth appears. The mouth is small, as in the other 

 species ; and, as it contains no teeth or grinding 

 apparatus of any kind, the animal must swallow entire 

 all those creatures upon which it feeds. The teeth 

 of all sea animals are, indeed, only prehensile or 

 wounding teeth, and never answer for mastication ; 

 even the teeth of sharks, which have a motion upon 

 the jaw, and by that means cut and tear at the same 

 time that they hold, are not grinding teeth. 



3. With teeth in the lower jaw only (Subdcntatcz). 

 The animals of this group are the true monsters of 

 the deep. They attain a vast size, are very active, 

 when irritated exceedingly ferocious; and they 

 answer, in the water, to the lions and tigers upon 

 land. They are not, like the balamse, confined to the 

 polar seas, or, like them, peaceful inhabitants of the 

 waters ; collecting small animals in a net, or, as one 

 may say without much exaggeration, grazing the deep, 

 fee, though they do not eat vegetable matter, they eat 

 only those substances which float near the surface. It 

 is chiefly from the bala?nae that we take our common 

 notion of whales ; and, therefore, we are apt to mis- 

 take the characters of those which form this group. 

 On the other hand, it does not appear that the 

 ancients had any knowledge of the Greenland whale, 

 though probably specimens of the finned species may 

 have been seen on the coast of Britain by the Romans 

 when they circumnavigated the island. At that 

 period, whales of some description or other appear to 

 have been common much further to the south than 

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