236 WHALES. 



animals much larger than themselves. Their motions 

 are light and graceful, and they swim with uncommon 

 velocity. The tooth is sometimes ten feet in length, 

 and according to Captain Scoresby, to whom we are 

 indebted for much valuable information respecting the 

 polar seas and their inhabitants, they are found only on 

 the male ; but sometimes, though rarely, they are 

 found on the female. The tusk is most commonly 

 found on the left side, while on the right there is the 

 rudiment of another, which has not perforated the bones 

 of the skull in which it is contained. On the British 

 shores the narwal is very rare ; but it has appeared 

 on the coast of Lincolnshire, probably at the Isle of 

 May, ("Prope insulam Mayam? Tulpius,) in the 

 Firth of Forth, and at the Sound of Werdale in Zetland. 

 The oil of the narwal is in considerable quantity, and 

 peculiarly pure and valuable ; but from the activity of 

 the animal, the rapidity with which it swims, and the 

 ease with which it dives, it is caught with the greatest 

 difficulty. 



Mention is made of a very small species of whale, 

 the Anarnak) found in the Greenland seas, with teeth 

 in the upper jaw, instead of the projecting tusk of the 

 narwal ; but its history is rather obscure, and no spe- 

 cimen of it has been met with upon the British shores. 



SUBDENTAT^l. SPERMACETI WHALES. 



THE animals of this genus are very formidable, of 

 great value in the arts, and much more widely diffused 

 over the globe than any of those that have been hitherto 

 mentioned. The most remarkable characteristic of the 



