476 HISTORY OF 



;.]id even tlie Freiifh seamen are now and then found to dress and 

 use it as tlieir ordinary diet at sea. It is said, by the English 

 and Dutch sailors, to be hard and ill-tasted ; but the French 

 assert the contrary ; and the savages of (Jreenhirid, as well as 

 those near the south pole, are fond of it to distracti'on. They 

 eat the flesh, and drink the oil, which is a first-rate delicacy. 

 The finding a dead whale is an adventure considered among the 

 fortunate circumstances of their wretched lives. They make 

 their abode beside it ; and seldom remove till they have left no- 

 thing but the bones. 



Jacobson, whom we quoted before in the History of Birds, 

 vi'here he described his countrymen of the island of Feroe as 

 living a part of the year upon salted gulls, tells us also, that they 

 are very fond of salted whale's flesh. The fat of the head they 

 season with bay salt, and then hang it up to dry in the chimney. 

 He thinks it tastes as well as fat bacon ; and the lean, which 

 they boil, is, in his opinion, not inferior to beef I fancy poor 

 Jacobson would make but an indifferent taster at one of our city 

 feasts ! 



CHAP. IV. 



OF THE NARWHAL. 



From whales that entirely want teeth, we come to such as 

 have them in the upper jaw only; and in this class is found but 

 one, the Narwhal, 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 whale, and its fat not in so great abundance. 

 But this great animal 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 



taken into tlie mouth with it, in feeding-. For, in tliis whale, the raoutli is 

 of such enormous proportions, as to receive at once even tons of water, and 

 yet of such wonderful perfection is its filtering- mechanism through these 

 hair-like filaments, that it rarely allows the escape of the nourishing parti- 

 cles diffused therein, although they be no larger than peas ; its food consist, 

 iug chiefly of small medusae, Crustacea, and zoophytes. 



