82 MAMMALIA. 



Eskimo and Danes resorted thitlier with their Dogs and sledges 

 and while one shot the animal, another harpooned it, to prevent it 

 being pushed aside hj the anxious crowd of brethren. Dozens of 

 both Narwhals and Belugas were kiUed, but many were lost before 

 thev were brought home, the ice breaking up soon after. In the 

 ensuing summer the natives found many dead washed up in the 

 bays and inlets around. Fabricius describes a similar scene. 

 Neither the Narwhal nor the Beluga are timid animals, but wiU 

 approach close to, and gambol for hours in the immediate vicinity 

 of a ship." 



In the female of the Narwhal the tusks are rudimentary, but 

 exist within the intermaxillary bone, each about ten inches long, 

 rough, and with no inclination to spire; "in fact," remarks Mr. 

 Brown, " not unlike a miniature piece of j)ig-iron. On the 

 other hand, the undeveloped tusk in the male is smooth and 

 tapering, and wrinlded longitudinally. Double-tusked Narwhals 

 are not uncommon. I have seen them swimming about among 

 the herd, and several such skulls have been preserved. The 

 colour of the animal is greyish, or velvet-black, with white spots, 

 sometimes roundish, but more frequently irregular blotches of no 

 certain outline, running into one another. There are no spots on 

 the tail or flippers, but waxy-like streaks shade off on each side' 

 at the junction of the tail, which is white at the line of inden- 

 tation. The female is more spotted than the male. The young 

 is, again, much darker ; and individuals have been seen which were 

 almost white, like the one Anderson describes as having come 

 ashore at the mouth of the Elbe. In a female killed at Pond's 

 Bay, in August, 1861, the stomach was corrugated in complicated 

 folds, as were also the small intestines. It contained Crustaceans, 

 bones of Fishes, and an immense quantity of the horny mandibles 

 of some species of Cuttle (probably. Sepia loligo) ilrmly packed 

 one witliin the other."* The Narwhal is chiefly an inhabitant of 

 the polai' regions, and very rarely strays to temperate latitudes ; 

 still fossil remains of it have been found both in England and 

 France. A male taken entangled among the rocks at the entrance 

 to the soimd of Weesdale, in Zetland, on the 27th of September, 

 1808, measured twelve feet, exclusive of the tusk. 



The Beluga [Bduga catodon), or "White Whale" of British 



* Frociediiigs of the Zoological Society, 1868, p. 562. 



