THE NARWHAL, OR SEA UNICORN. 



261 



sportive, and migrates in numbers, both sexes associating in the droves. It is fearless and inquisitive, 

 approaching the ship with an easy roll, occasionally emitting a whistling sound ; hence seamen call 

 them " sea canaries." The female gives birth to a young one in the spring months, and this is of 

 .a bluish-grey colour, paling with age. Their docility and indeed intelligence, when captured, are well 

 illustrated by one in America, which was trained to draw a car round the tank. It recognised its 

 Jceeper, and allowed itself to be freely handled. It would play with a Sturgeon and a small Shark as a 

 Cat would with a Mouse, but without injuring them ; at other moments it would splash about and toss 

 stones with its mouth. The Greenlanders dry their flesh for winter use, hoard their oil, and capture 

 them by nets at the entrance of the fjords and inlets whenever chance permits. Five hundred or 

 more every year are thus obtained. Dr. Rae says that the Beluga is similarly caught by nets in tho 

 St. Lawrence. The Indians also paint their canoes white and sail promiscuously among them, 

 harpooning betimes. Every part of the animal is valuable to the natives of the north, the skin being 

 manufactured into capital leather. A white Porpoise-looking Whale visits Arnoy and other southerly 

 harbours of China, but it is a true Dolphin (Z>. sinensis), and not a Belviga. 



THE NARWHAL, OK SEA-UNICORN.* Of all Whales this is the most xinique on account of its 

 so-called horn, or rather tusk, or, still better, enormously-developed canine tooth. Most museums 

 contain examples of this extraordinary object, which seems like a solid rod of ivory, tapers from root 

 to tip, has a kind of striated spiral surface, and is often from five to seven feet or more in length, 

 thus being the longest tooth in the Mammalia. The adult animals vary from ten to sixteen feet long, 

 and, like the Beluga, have a blunt short head, no dorsal fin, and very small flippers. It is essentially a 

 northern form, inasmuch as it frequents the coasts of Greenland, Spitzbergen, and Siberia, though 

 occasionally met with off 

 Scandinavia and Britain, its 

 favourite haunts, however, 

 being 70 to 80 N. lat. It 

 travels in great herds, and 

 Dr. R. Brown avers that he 

 saw thousands in their summer 

 migrations following tusk to 

 tusk and tail to tail like a 

 regiment of cavalry, and swim- 

 ming Avith perfect, regular, 

 undulating movements. These 

 herds ai-e of both sexes. The 

 Narwhals have grey backs, 

 mottled with black, the sides 

 and belly paling downwards 

 to white, and equally spotted 



with grey or darker tint. The females are more spotted than the males, the young are darker, but some 

 animals are much paler than others. The crescentic blowhole externally is single. Occasionally they 

 utter a gurgling noise. In the stomachs of captured Narwhals, fish-bones, Crustaceans, Molluscs, and 

 Cuttle-fish remains have been found. They swim with great velocity, and are most active creatures. 

 They dash and sport about apparently with much glee, and Scoresby says that in their playful moments 

 they parry horns as if fencing. He suggests that the horn may be used for spearing fish, as he found 

 a large flat Skate in the stomach of one. Others imagine that it may be for stirring up food from the 

 bottom ; but it has been very deftly remarked that the female would thus fare badly, seeing she is desti- 

 tute of the tooth in question. Fabricius' view, that it was to keep the ice-holes open during the winter, 

 has a touch of truth in it, inasmuch as one among other instances has been recorded where it usefully 

 supplied such a purpose. Dr. R. Brown mentions that in 1860 a Greenlander observed in a hole in 

 the ice hundreds of Narwhals and White Whales protruding their heads to breathe. It was likened 

 to an Arctic Black Hole ot Calcutta, so eager were the creatures pushing towards it. The natives 

 gathered around, harpooned and shot the creatures by the dozen, though many were lost, such was the 



* Monodon monoctros. 



NARWHAL WITH THE TWO TUSKS DEVELOPED. 



