THE NARWHAL. 129 



Scoresby found the remains of cuttle-fish in the stomachs 

 of several which were opened by him, and similar re- 

 * mains were also found in the stomach of one driven 

 ashore near Boston. As in the case of many animals of 

 which the males have tusks, or horns, or antlers, and the 

 females none, the tusks of the narwhal are most probably 

 to be regarded principally as a mark of sexual distinction, 

 and secondarily as weapons of defence. The usual length 

 of the narwhal does not exceed sixteen or eighteen feet, 

 exclusive of the tusk, though it is occasionally found 

 larger. 



Mr. Sowerby, in his " British Miscellany," states that 

 the individual driven ashore, in 1800, near Boston in Lin- 

 colnshire, was twenty -five feet long : it had two tusks, five 

 feet six inches long. It was formerly supposed that the 

 ivory of this animal was an antidote against pestilential 

 maladies : and various authors have entered into this sub- 

 ject. It is said that the kings of Denmark had a throne 

 composed entirely of narwhal's tusks, in the Chateau de 

 Rosenburg. This superstition reminds us of the value of 

 the horn of the rhinoceros in the East, cups made of which 

 were said to give evidence of the presence of poison in 

 the liquid they contain. Few, we believe are now so 

 credulous as to attribute miraculous virtues to the ivory 

 tusks of any animal. Those of the narwhal are, how- 

 ever, valuable from the closeness of their texture, and 

 their great hardness. In general form, as we, have said, 

 the narwhal resembles the porpoise, or grampus ; but the 

 head is small and blunt. The mouth is small, and not ca- 

 pable of much extension. The under-lip is wedge-shaped. 

 The eyes are placed in a line with the opening of the 

 mouth, at the distance of fourteen or fifteen inches from 

 the snout, and. of small size, being about an inch in diam- 

 eter. The spiracle, or blow-hole, is a single orifice, of a 

 semicircular form, on the top of the head, directly over 

 the eyes. The fins, or flippers, are about fourteen or fif- 



