90 .R. BROWN ON THE OETACEA OF GREENLAND. 



throughout, 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. 



(7) Habits f ^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. mysticetus, 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 couples in an upright position ; and seems to 

 produce at about the same time as the Right Whale. Usually 

 only one young one is produced, but cases in which a female con- 

 tained or produced two are known. 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 light 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. Fabricius thought that it was to keep 

 the holes open in the ice during the winter ; and the following 

 occurrence seems to support this view. In April 1860, a 

 Greenlander was travelling along the ice in the vicinity of 

 Christianshaab, and discovered one of these open spaces in the 

 ice, which, even in the most severe winters, remain open. In 

 this hole hundreds of Narwhals and White Whales were protruding 

 their heads to breathe, no other place presenting itself for miles 

 around. It was described to me as akin to an " Arctic Black Hole 

 " of Calcutta," in the eagerness of the animals to keep at the place. 

 Hundreds of Eskimo and Danes resorted thither with their dogs 

 and sledges, and while one shot the animal, another harpooned 

 it to prevent its being pushed aside by the anxious crowd of 

 breathers. Dozens of both Narwhals and White Whales were 

 killed, but many were lost before they were got home, the ice 

 breaking up soon after. In the ensuing summer the natives found 

 many washed up in the bays and inlets around. Fabricus describes 

 a similar scene. Neither the Narwhal nor the White Whale are 

 timid animals, but mil approach close to, and gambol for hours 

 in the immediate vicinity of the ship, 



(S) Geographical distribution. — The range and migration of 

 the Narwhal is much the same as that of the White Whale. It is 

 only found on the coast of Danish G-reenland during the spring 

 and winter, migrating northward and westward in the summer. 

 It is rarely seen south of 65° N. lat. 



(e) Economic value. — In early times the tusk of the Narwhal 

 was highly valued as a medicine; and Master Pomet, in his 

 " Compleat Historic of Drugges," gives special directions regarding 

 the selection of them. The scrapings were esteemed alexo- 

 pharmic, and used of old in malignant fevers, and against the bite 



