CURIOUS CREATURES. 245 



great Horn, wherewith he can penetrate, and destroy the 

 ships in his way, and drown multitudes of men. But 

 divine goodnesse hath provided for the safety of Marriners 

 herein ; for, though he be a very fierce Creature, yet is 

 he very slow, that such as fear his coming may fly from 

 him." 



The earlier voyagers who really saw the Narwhal, 

 fairly accurately described it ; as Baffin, whose name is 

 so familiar to us by the bay called after him : "As for 

 the Sea Unicorne, it being a great fish, having a long 

 horn or bone growing forth of his forehead or nostrill, 

 such as Sir Martin Frobisher, in his second voyage 

 found one, in divers places we saw them, which, if the 

 home be of any good value, no doubt but many of 

 them may be killed ; " and Frobisher, as reported in 

 Hakluyt, says : " On this west shore we found a dead 

 fish floating, which had in his nose a home streight, 

 and torquet, (twisted) of length two yards lacking two 

 ynches. Being broken in the top, here we might per- 

 ceive it hollow, into the which some of our sailors, 

 putting spiders, they presently died. I saw not the 

 triall hereof, but it was reported unto me of a truth ; 

 by the vertue thereof we supposed it to be the Sea 

 Unicorne." 



THE SWAMFISCK. 



The accompanying illustration, though heading the 

 chapter in Olaus Magnus regarding the Swamfisck and 

 other fish, does not at all seem to elucidate the text : 

 " The Variety of these Fish, or rather Monsters, is here 

 set down, because of their admirable form, and many 

 properties of Nature, as they often come to the Norway 

 Shores amongst other Creatures, and they are catcht 



