R. BROWN ON THE GET ACE A OF GREENLAND. 91 



of serpents. Cups made of it were believed to possess the power 

 of detecting and neutralizing any poison contained in them. 

 From this " horn " also was distilled a strong " sal volatile." 

 To this day the Chinese esteem them for their medicinal pro- 

 perties. In old times it was imposed upon the world as the 

 horn of the "unicorn," and sold at a very high price. The 

 heirs of the Chancellor to Christian Frisius of Denmark valued 

 one at 8,000 imperials. {Mus. Reg. Hafnice.) In 1861 the price 

 of Narwhal's ivory was I*. 6d. per lb., but of late years it has 

 risen prodigiously in value owing to the repair of the Chinese 

 palaces, but is again falling. In the Palace of Rosenborg is a 

 throne of the kings of Denmark manufactured of this ivory ; and 

 Capt. Scoresby (the father of the Doctor) had a bedstead made of 

 it. The oil is highly esteemed, and the flesh is very palatable."^ 

 The skin of the Narwhal boiled to a jelly is looked upon, and 

 justly so, as one of the prime dainties of a Greenlander. The 

 hospitable Danish ladies resident in that country always make 

 a point of presenting a dish of mattak to their foreign visitors, 

 who soon begin to like it, See also Pennant, Supplement to Arctic 

 Zool. p. 100. 



14. Globiocephalus svineval (Lacep.), Gray. 



Delphinus melas, Traill, Nicholson's Journal, vol. xxii. (1809) 

 p. 21. 



Delphinus deductor, Traill, MS. and Scoresby's Arctic Regions, 

 vol. i. p. 496, t. 13. fig. 1. 



Delphinus globiceps, Cuv. Ann. Mus. xix. 1. 1. fig. 2. 



Delphinus tu?'sio, O. Fabr. Faun. Grcenl. p. 49. no. 31. 



Popular names. — Bottle-nose, Caaing Whale (fishermen and 

 seamen) ; Grindaquealur (Faroe Islands) ; Grinde-Hval (Swedish 

 and Danish) ; Nesernak or Nisarnak (Greenland). The term 

 Bottle-nose is applied by sailors to several species of Whales. In 

 fact any Whale which is not a " Right Whale," " finner," " par- 

 macity " (spermaceti), " purpess," '* unicorn " (Narwhal) or 

 " White Whale " is with them included under the vague term of 

 "Bottle-nose." The common and most characteristic name for 

 this Whale is that used in the north of Scotland, viz. caaing or 

 driving Whale — a term translated into deductor.\ 



There seems little doubt that this is the Delphinus tursio of 

 Fabricius, as the Eskimo name Nesernak is applied to the present 

 animal. If so, Fabricius's name has the priority; but, as it has 

 been confounded with another species, it is better to keep Lacepede's 

 most barbarous trivial name. Gray and other authors look upon 

 Fabricius's Nesernak as the type of a distinct species, and have 

 described it as Tursio trimcatus. The Delphinus truncatus of 

 Montagu (Wernerian Society's Trans, vol. iii. t. 5. fig. 3) is a 

 totally different animal. Fabricius's description (" Frons rotunda, 



* Though indeed the learned Wormius -warns us that it is a deadly poison. 



f It has no connexion with calling, as it has sometimes been translated, 

 even in works Avritten by Scotchmen. It is derived from the Scotch word 

 caa, signifying to drive, relating to their ordinary method of capture, viz., by 

 driving them ashore. 



