WHALES. 235 



seas, but they occasionally make their appearance on 

 the northern shores of Scotland, or among the Orkney 

 or Shetland islands. Of these, there are two species, 

 the common, or " sea-unicorn," and the " microce- 

 phalus" or small headed. Their length seldom ex- 

 ceeds twenty-two feet ; their head and mouth are small 

 in proportion to their bodies, as compared with those 

 of the whales ; their mouths have neither teeth nor 

 whalebone, they have only one blow-hole, and they 

 have no dorsal fin, but there is a ridge from the tail 

 to the middle part of their back. The greatest pecu- 

 liarity about them, and that which has got them the 

 name of monodon, (one-toothed,) and monoceros, (one- 

 horned,) is a tooth which projects from one side of the 

 upper jaw, and extends, in a straight direction, a con- 

 siderable way in advance of the snout. This tooth is 

 sometimes on the one side of the head, and sometimes 

 on the other ; but though there be a preparation for 

 the production of one on each side, the two have very 

 seldom been found. The tooth is composed of a sub- 

 stance resembling ivory, and spirally twisted. The 

 animal is said to use it both as a weapon of war, and 

 as a means of driving shell-fish from the rocks. The 

 tooth, or "horn," as it is usually called, though much 

 more brittle than ivory, is of some value in the arts ; 

 walking-sticks are made of the small ones ; and bed- 

 posts and other articles of those that are larger ; and 

 the Greenlanders use them as poles. Though armed 

 with this powerful weapon, the narwaJs are very harm- 

 less animals, except to those fishes on which they feed ; 

 but they are said to be very revengeful when ill used ; 

 and to plunge their formidable tooth into the bodies of 



