202 DESCRIPTION OF GREENLAND, 



unicorn's, and of which we are now speaking. What makes 

 me think they are teeth and not horns, is, that Aristotle tells 

 us for true and certain, that all unicorns had their horns in 

 the middle of their forehead, in the usual place where horns 

 grow ; whilst these fish have what we call a horn at the end 

 of their jaw and gum, at the place where teeth usually grow. 

 Horns are fastened on the forehead by symjihysis, while 

 teeth go deep into the jaw hj yomphosis ; and we saw clearly 

 in the skull which M, Vormius showed us, that what we had 

 taken for a horn, was buried in the jaw about a foot deep, 

 and that it extended outwards like a lance in rest, just in the 

 same manner as the fish pristes carries its saw, and the other 

 fish xiphias its sword. 



I have read a fine argument in Aristotle, or rather, I 

 should call it, an excellent remark, upon the single horned- 

 ness of unicorns: he says, that all animals which have two 

 horns have the hoof divided into two, and that all unicorns 

 have the nail undivided and solid ; that nature has made the 

 same union and consolidation of hoofs and horns at the feet 

 and head of unicorns, as it has made a similar division of 

 hoofs and horns at the feet and head of other animals. From 

 which it results, that the only distinction between the uni- 

 corn and other animals, consists in the unity and solidity of 

 their hoofs and horns ; and by the same rule that unicorns 

 have their hoofs similarly placed Avith those of other animals, 

 they have their horns in the same place in the head, namely, 

 the forehead. Again, as other animals which have two horns, 

 have them one on either side of the forehead, unicorns, 

 which have only one, have it in the middle of the forehead. 

 But, in the same manner as the fish of which we are speak- 

 ing, having neither hoofs nor feet, cannot have horns in the 

 head ; so it follows that the so-called horns, being buried in 

 their jaw and not fixed in their forehead, cannot be horns, 

 and therefore must be teeth. 



This was not my opinion ;it the first, but whilst I was dis- 



