198 VEETEBRATES. 



are held when the periodical shoals of herrings, pilchards, and 

 other fish arrive on the coasts. In the pursuit of its prey, it fre- 

 quently ventures some distance up a river, and is then often taken 

 in nets by the fishermen. The teeth of this animal are very nu- 

 merous, and interlock when the jaws are closed, so that the fish 

 when, once seized cannot escape. Its length is about five feet, ita 

 color a rich black, becoming white on the under side. 



The Narwhal is not so large as the whale, not being 

 above sixty feet long. Its body is slenderer than that of the 

 whale, and its fat not in so great abundance. But this great 

 animal is sufficiently distinguished from all others of the deep by 

 its tooth or teeth, which stand pointing directly forward from the 

 upper jaw, and are from nine to fourteen feet long. In all the 

 variety of weapons with which Nature has armed her various tribes, 

 there is not one so large or so formidable as this. It is as straight 

 as an arrow, about the thickness of the small of a man's leg, 

 wreathed in the manner we sometimes see twisted bars of iron ; it 

 tapers to a sharp point ; and is whiter, heavier, and harder than 

 ivory. It is generally seen to spring from the left side of the 

 head directly forward in a straight line with the body ; and its 

 ' root enters into the socket above a foot and a half. In a skull to 

 be seen at Hamburg there are two teeth, which are each above 

 seven feet long, and are eight inches in circumference. When 

 the animal, possessed of these formidable weapons, is urged to 

 employ them, it drives directly forward against the enemy witL 

 its teeth, that, like protended spears, pierce whatever stands before 

 them. 



The use of these tusks is not known ; some supposing that 

 they are employed to dig up sea-weeds, etc., on which the Narwhal 

 feeds, and some imagining that the living prey is first transfixed 

 and then eaten. Be this as it may, as a weapon the tusk is not to 

 be despised, as the strength and rapidity of the Narwhal are very 

 great. Instances are on record, of the thick oak timbers of a 

 ship being pierced by the ivory tusk of this creature. The Green- 

 landers employ this ivory in the manufacture of spears, arrows, 

 Vooks, etc. They take the Narwhal by a kind of harpoon attached 



