52 MR. J. W. CLARK ON THE NARWHAL. [Jan. 17, 



to be submitted to the most rigorous examination. When, however, 

 the two tusks are of the same, or of nearly the same size, as in my 

 specimen (see figs. 1 and 2), I think deception is simply impossible ; 

 because any one can tell at a glance whether the right maxillary has 

 increased in due proportion for the reception of a full-grown tooth *. 



I find that Dr. R. Brown, in his account of the " Cetaceans of the 

 Greenland Seas" (P. Z. S. 1868, p. 553), says, "double-horned ones 

 (Narwhals) are not uncommon : I have seen them swimming about 

 among the herd ; and several such skulls have been preserved. Among 

 others, there is a fine specimen, presented by Captain Graville, in the 

 Trinity House, Hull. One of the teeth is 3' long, and the other 4'." 

 As I have never been in Greenland, and Dr. Brown has, it may seem 

 presumptuous in me to doubt the accuracy of the first part of the 

 above statement. But against Dr. Brown may be advanced the testi- 

 mony of Scoresby t, who says, " Two or three instances have occurred 

 of male Narwhals having beeu taken, which had two large external 

 tusks. But this is a rare circumstance." The testimony of CrantzJ 

 is to the same effect. Again, the great interest which was excited by 

 the Hamburg specimen must surely have stimulated whalers to do 

 their best to acquire so valuable a prize ; and yet in 186 years only 

 ten or eleven specimens have been obtained ! Moreover I think we 

 should always cmestion the accuracy of any observation made from a 

 ship's deck of animals that are swimming close together in a herd. It 

 is so very easy to transfer the characteristics of one to another ; nay, 

 almost impossible to avoid doing so. For this reason I should be 

 disposed to reject the instance cited by Sir E. Home §, who says, 

 "A very intelligent captain in the Greenland fishery, who has gone 

 thirty-five voyages, never saw a Narwhal with two tusks but once, 

 and then from the masthead. The left appeared to be two-thirds 

 longer than the right, and was above 5' out of the water ; the point 

 of the right appearing just above the surface, so that the small one 

 must have been about 3'." Surely it is most probable that the two 

 tusks belonged to different animals. It is to observations of this 

 kind that we owe the Dolphins with two dorsal fins, and other mon- 

 strosities of Cetacean literature. 



On the other hand I was told by Mr. 'Wareham, the well-known 

 dealer in china and curiosities, in whose shop I have had the oppor- 

 tunity of examining a great number of Narwhal tusks, bought by 

 him out of the ship ' Diana,' of Hull, that the mate informed him 

 that two of them were taken out of the same skull. I mention this 

 fact, as it may indicate that whalers are indifferent to every consi- 

 deration except that of getting as much ivory as possible, and do not 

 stop to consider whether their prize has two tusks or one. 



Dr. Brown has made a strange mistake with reference to the speci- 

 men from Hull, which he describes so particularly. Feeling anxious 



* Professor Flower tells me that there is a bidental cranium in the AYarwick 

 Museum with the tusk on the right side inserted artificially, 

 f Arctic Regions, i. p. 490. 

 J History of Greenland, i. p. 105. 

 § Lectures, i. p. 259. 



