OEDEE OF OETACEA. 77 



tide wliicli was running eigtt miles an hoiir, from Blackwall to 

 Greenwicli, and then on to Deptford. 



This animal is celebrated for the combats in which it engages 

 with the giant of the seas — the Whale. Grampuses go in troops, 

 and if they meet with a "Whale they rush upon it, hustle and 

 worry it; and then, when overcome with fatigue, it opens its 

 mouth, they devour its tongue. 



Narwhal. — Narwhals difier very little from Porpoises in their 

 general form and the colour of their bodies ; but at the first glance 

 they are easily to be distinguished from all other Cetaceans by the 

 singular tusk with which nature has provided them. Of the two 

 incisive teeth im^Dlanted in the upper jaw of the Narwhal, one is 

 almost entirely an abortion, whilst the other, by a sort of organic 

 compensation, is prodigiously elongated in a straight line, and is 

 simply an enormous stiletto, which is rounded with a spiral 

 fluting, a sharp point at the extremity, and which is of one-third 

 or half the length of the animal. This strange creature has 

 then but one tooth — and what a tooth ! It is, in fact, a sword 

 of ivory.* 



There have been, both among the ancients and the moderns, 

 many stories about the Narwhal's tooth. It was formerly con- 

 sidered to be like the horn of the Unicorn, which was situated on 

 the middle of the forehead. This fabulous being resembled, they 

 said, the Horse and the Stag. Aristotle and Pliny have described 

 it, and it is represented on many ancient monuments. It 

 was adopted by the chivalry of the middle ages, and has often 

 decorated the trophies in military fetes. 



Our ancestors attributed to the tooth of the Narwhal, which 

 they called the tooth of the Unicorn, marvellous medicinal virtues. 

 They considered it an infallible antidote to all poisonous sub- 

 stances ; they were persuaded that it counteracted all the hurtfid 

 properties of venomous substances. Charles IX., dreading lest he 

 should be poisoned, was very careful to put into his cup of wine a 

 piece of the Sea Unicorn's tooth. Ambroise Pare was the first who 

 dared to lift up his voice against these errors. 



Very soon afterwards the Unicorn ceased to be an object of 

 exorbitant price on account of its rarity and its supposed virtues. 



* In the Museum of Natural History at AmBterdam, there is a Narwhal skull 

 with two fully developed tusks. It is the only instance known.— Ed. 



