THE NARWHAL 
shaped. The eyes are small, the largest diameter being only an inch, and 
are placed in a line with the opening of the mouth, about 13 inches from 
the snout. The blowhole, which is directly over the eyes, is a single 
opening, of a semi-circular form, about 3! inches in diameter or breadth, 
and 1^ radius or length. 
"The fins, which are 12 or 14 inches long and 6 or 8 broad, are 
placed one-fifth of the length of the animal from the snout. The tail is 
from 15 to 20 inches long, and 3 to 4 feet broad. It has no dorsal fin, but 
in place of it is an irregular sharpish fatty ridge, two inches in height, extend- 
ing two and a half feet along the back, nearly midway between the snout 
and the tail. The edge of this ridge is generally rough, and the cuticle and 
rete mucosum being partly wanting upon it, appear to be worn off by 
rubbing against the ice. 
" The prevailing colour of the young Narwhal is blackish-grey on the 
back, variegated with numerous darker spots running into one another, and 
forming a dusky black surface, paler and more open spots of grey on a white 
ground at the sides, disappearing altogether about the middle of the belly. 
In the elder animals the ground is wholly white or yellowish-white, with 
dark-grey or blackish spots of different degrees of intensity. These spots are 
of a roundish or oblong form : on the back, where they seldom exceed two 
inches in diameter, they are the darkest and most crowded together, yet 
with intervals of pure white among them. On the sides, the spots are fainter, 
smaller, and more open. On the belly, they become extremely faint and 
few, and in considerable surfaces are not to be seen. 
" On the upper part of the neck, just behind the blowhole, is often a 
close patch of brownish-black without any white. 
" The external part of the fins is also generally black at the edges, but 
greyish about the middle. The upper side of the tail is also blackish round 
the edges, but in the middle, grey, with black curvilinear streaks on a white 
II. 81 L 
