CETACEOUS FISHES. 251 



CHAPTER IV 



OF THE NARWHALE. 



I tf.OM whales that entirely want teeth, we come to such as have 

 them in the upper jaw only ; and in this class there is found but one, 

 the Narwhale, or Sea-unicorn. This fish is not so large as the whale, 

 not being above sixty feet long. Its body is slenderer than that of 

 the v^iale, and its fat not in so great abundance. But this great ani- 

 mal is sufficiently distinguished from all others of the deep by its tooth 

 or teeth, which stand pointing directly forward from the upper jaw, 

 and are from nine to fourteen feet long. In all the variety of weapons 

 with which Nature has armed her various tribes, there is.not.one so 

 large or so formidable as this. This terrible weapon is generally 

 found single, and some are of opinion that the animal is furnished but 

 with one by Nature ; but there is at present the skull of a narwhale 

 at the Stadthouse at Amsterdam, with two teeth ; which plainly 

 proves that in some animals, at least, this instrument is double. It is 

 even a doubt whether it may not be so in all ; and that the narwhale's 

 wanting a tooth is only an accident which it has met with in the en- 

 counters it is obliged daily to be engaged in. Yet it must be owned 

 of these that are taken only with one tooth, there seems no socket, 

 nor no remains of any other upon the opposite side of the jaw, but all 

 is plain and even. However this be, the tooth, or as some are pleased 

 to call it, the horn of the narwhale, is the most terrible of all natural 

 instruments of destruction. It is as straight as an arrow, about the 

 thickness of the small of a man's leg, wreathed in the manner we 

 sometimes see twisted bars of iron ; it tapers to a sharp point ; and is 

 whiter, heavier, and harder than ivory. It is generally seen to spring 

 from the left side of the head directly forward in a straight line with 

 the body ; and its root enters into the socket above a foot and a half. 

 In a skull to be seen at Hamburgh there are two teeth, which are each 

 above seven feet long, and are eight inches in circumference. When 

 the animal, possessed of these formidable weapons, is urged to em- 

 ploy them, it drives directly forward against the enemy with its teeth, 

 that, like protended spears, pierce whatever stands before them. 



The extreme length of these instruments have induced some to 

 consider them rather as horns than teeth ; but they in every respect 

 resemble the tusks of the boar and the elephant. They grow, as in 

 them, from sockets in the upper jaw; they have the solidity of the 

 hardest bone, and far surpass ivory in all its qualities. The same er- 

 ror has led others to suppose, that as among quadrupeds the female 

 was often found without horns, so these instruments of defence were 

 only to be found in the male, but this has been more than once re- 

 futed by actual experience ; both sexes are found armed in this man 

 ner ; the horn is sometimes found wreathed and sometimes smooth ; 

 sometimes a little bent and sometimes straight: but always strong 

 deeply *ixed, and sharply pointed. 



