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THE NARWHAL . 
,in the middle of the lower jaw. The pectoral fins are placed rather low, and their shape is 
oval, tapering towards their extremities. Sowerby’s Ziphins is so called, because that well- 
known naturalist figured and described the animal. His description was founded upon a 
specimen that was cast ashore. The skull of this individual was preserved by Mr. Sowerby 
in his museum, and is so valuable a specimen that it has been industriously multiplied by 
means of plaster casts, which have been distributed to various scientific institutions. 
The length of the creature was sixteen feet, and its girth at the largest part of the body 
was eleven feet. The head is small, narrow, and pointed, and the lower jaw is longer, blunter, 
and wider than the upper jaw, so that when the mouth is closed, the lower jaw receives the 
upper. In the upper jaw there are two depressions corresponding with the teeth, and permit- 
ting the perfect closing of the mouth. The color of the animal is black on the upper surface 
and gray below, and is remarkable for the pellucid and satin-like character of the skin, which 
reflects the rays of the sun to a considerable distance. The body is marked like watered silk. 
This effect is produced by a vast number of white streaks immediately below the skin, which 
are drawn irregularly over the whole body, and at a little distance appear as if they were made 
by means of some sharp instrument. 
Nothing is known of the habits of this curious animal, which is unknown to science, 
except by means of the specimen above mentioned. 
The Dolphins are represented in our Atlantic waters by the Common Dolphin. Historical 
and classical, this creature has in all ages claimed a good degree of interest and attention from 
the general reader, as well as the poet, the painter, and the savant. Its graceful form has 
long been the ideal of beauty in certain artistic groupings and designs. The characteristic 
prominence on its head, with its prolonged snout, is exaggerated somewhat to produce the 
conventional art-form. This is the true Dolphin of the poet and the painter, although the 
sailor may claim that the fish so called which exhibits most brilliant colors, made changeable 
while dying by certain aspects of the circulation of the blood, is also the true one. The latter 
has somewhat the same outline of head and shoulders, but the former, also, has the elongated 
flexible body, with the elegant forked tail, whose flukes add such grace to the drawings of 
ancient works. Though familiar to the reader by description and illustration, yet the Dolplnn 
is seldom seen alive. An excellent opportunity was offered during the winter of 1878 in the 
New York Aquarium. A specimen measuring about seven feet in length was captured in the 
Long Island Sound, and was successfully exhibited alive during several months. 
The Porpoise is the most familiar Cetacean to people living near the sea. It is especially 
a harbor species. Herds of them are often seen rolling, rolling, as they come to the surface to 
breathe. The name is curiously corrupted from the French, porc-poisson , hog-fish literally. 
This species reaches the length of seven feet, though usually it is about four or five. 
The word Narwhal is derived from the Gothic, signifying “Beaked- whale,” and is a 
very appropriate term for the Sea Unicorx, as the animal is popularly entitled. The head 
of the Narwhal is round, and convex in front, the lower jaw being without teeth, and not so 
wide as the upper jaw. From the upper jaw of the Narwhal springs the curious weapon which 
has gained for the animal a world- wide reputation. 
In the upper jaw of the young or the female Narwhal are found two small, hollow tusks, 
imbedded in the bone, which, in the female, are generally undeveloped throughout the whole of 
the animal’s existence, but in the male Narwhal are strangely modified. The right tusk 
remains in its infantine state, excepting that the hollow becomes filled with bony substance ; 
but the left tusk rapidly increases in length, and is developed into a long, spiral, tapering rod 
of ivory, sometimes attaining to the length of eight or ten feet. The tusks are supposed to be 
formed by an excessive growth of the canine teeth, and not of the incisors, as might be sup- 
posed from the position which they occupy in the jaw. 
The use of this singular tusk is very obscure, for if it were intended to serve some very 
important object, such as the procuring of food, it is evident that the females would need its 
aid as much as their companions of the opposite sex, for both sexes feed on the same food, 
and inhabit the same localities, at the same time, A very plausible conjecture has been offered, 
