DESCRIPTION OF A NARWAL. I37 



The Narwal now under consideration was a 

 snale. The external organs of generation were 

 situated in a groove, seven inches long, and nearly 

 five feet distant from the tail. The anus was 

 placed about four feet from the tail, 



The colour of this singular animal was a dusky 

 black on the upper parts of the body, variegated 

 with still darker spots not very apparent. The 

 belly was of a white colour. On the^ sides there 

 were numerous spots of an oblong figure, and placed 

 horizontally, or in a direction with the length of 

 the body. The skin was smooth and glossy. The 

 scarf-skin was extremely thin and pellucid, and 

 easily separated from the true skin. The true 

 skin was nearly a quarter of an inch in thickness, 

 and was closely united to the fat. On the sides, 

 where the spots were chiefly situated, numerous 

 dark-coloured fibres traversed the skin in a direc- 

 tion perpendicular to its surface. The exterior 

 ends of these blackish fibres, appeared to unite 

 and constitute the spots. The spots on the Narwal 

 of Boston, according to La Cepede, were deepest 

 and most numerous on the head, the top of the nose, 

 the most elevated part of the back, on the paws, 



*' serves many other ends : as to stir up his food from 

 " the bottom of the sea, as he is said to feed upon small 

 4t sea- weeds, and likewise therewith to bore holes in the 

 ice, in order to fetch fresh air."— Egede's Greenland, 

 translation, Lond. 1745, p. 79. 

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