1868.] OF THE GREENLAND SEAS. 553 



iron. On the other hand, the undeveloped tusk in the male is 

 smooth and tapering, and " wrinkled " ^longitudinally. Double- 

 horned ones 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 Capt. Graville, 

 in the Trinity House, Hull. One of the teeth is 3 feet long, and 

 the other 4 feet. Of course there is no whalebone in its jaw ; but it 

 is interesting to notice the laws of homology of structure (as I think) 

 kept up. On the sides of each gum are transverse markings, either 

 corresponding to the alveoli of the teeth or to the position of the 

 laminae of the whalebone in the Baltenidce. The under jaws are very 

 light and quite hollow for half their length, as in most species of 

 Cetacea ; this cavity is filled with a very fine blubber. The tongue 

 is regularly concentrically grooved and attached its whole length, so 

 as scarcely to be recognized as it lies flat on the base of the mouth ; 

 the roof of the mouth is correspondingly marked. The lungs are 

 each about 1 1 foot long ; the kidney 9 inches long and about 

 4j inches broad ; the lacteah were very distinct and distended ; the 

 large intestine at broadest about 4 inches in diameter, at thinnest 

 about \\ inch, and about 60 feet in length. 



The 'pectoral fin is not notched below (as would seem from the 

 plate in Hamilton's book "On Whales"), but smooth and entire, 

 curved below, the greatest curve pointing posteriorly, but with the 

 thickest part of the fin anteriorly. The animal was greyish or 

 velvet-black, with white spots, sometimes roundish, but more fre- 

 quently irregular blotches of no certain outline running into one 

 another. There were no spots on the tail or fin ; waxy-looking 

 streaks shaded off on each side of the indentation of the tail, which 

 is white at the line of indentation. The ridge along its back corre- 

 sponding to the dorsal fin is of a uniform height of 1 inch through- 

 out, irregularly notched on the top, like the embrasures of a castle- 

 wall, and is formed of blubber covered with the common integument 

 of the body, of which it is merely a raised fold. 



(y) Habits 4'c. — The Narwhal is gregarious, generally travelling in 

 great herds. I have seen a herd of many thousands travelling north 

 on their summer migrations, tusk to tusk and tail to tail, like a 

 regiment of cavalry, so regularly did they seem to rise and sink into 

 the water in their undulatory movements in swimming. It is very 

 active and will often dive with the rapidity of the B. mysticetes, 

 taking out 30 or 40 fathoms of line. These " schools " are not all of 

 one sex, as stated by Scoresby, but males and females mixed. It 

 copulates in an upright position, and seems to produce at about the 

 same time as the Right Wliale. The use of the tusk has long been a 

 matter of dispute : it has been supposed to use it to stir up its food 

 from the bottom ; but in such a case the female would be sadly at a 

 loss. They seem to fight with them ; for it is rarely that an unbroken 

 one is got, and occasionally one may be found with the point of 

 another jammed into the broken place where the tusk is young 

 enough to be hollow or is broken near enough to the skull. Fabri- 

 cius thought that it was to keep the holes open in the ice during the 



