THE N AltWlt A !., OR SEA-U.VICORN. { 
to obtain more than bOO of that number to serve on board 
our ships of war. Besides the vast encouragement given to 
the trade, had occasioned such a glut in the market, that it 
was found necessary to export considerable quantities; and 
thus we paid a large share of the purchase money for foreign 
nations, as well as for our own people, besides supplying 
them with the materials of several important manufactures.” 
This proposition was opposed by several members, but was 
finally carried ; and the propriety of the measure became 
very soon apparent. At that time ( 17S()> the number of 
ships employed from England in the whale-fishery to Davis's 
straits and the Greenland seas amounted to Ib9, besides id 
from Scotland.^ The proposed alteration look place the 
next year (1787); and notwithstanding the diminution of 
the bounty, the trade increased ; the number of ships em- 
ployed the same year from England amounting to 217, and 
the next year (1788) to 222. 
ihe flesh of Lhis animal is a dainty to some nations; and 
the savages of Greenland, as well as those near the south 
pole, are fond of it to distraction. They eat the flesh, and 
drink the oil, which is a first-rate delicacy. The Undine a 
dead whale is an adventure considered among the fortuiiate 
circumstances of their wretched lives. They make their 
abode beside it; and seldom remove till they have left no- 
il) ing but the bones. 
ihe Narwhal, or Sea-Unicorn is not so large as the 
1<l ‘ e j n °l being above sixty feet long. Its body is slenderer 
t ian that of the whale, and its fat not in so great abun- 
dance. But this great animal is sufficiently distinguished 
■oin all others of the deep by its tooth or teeth, which stand 
pointing directly forward from the upper jaw, and are from 
U| ne to fourteen feet long. In all the variety of weapons 
" >tli which Nature has armed her various tribes, there is not 
°" e so large or so formidable as this. This terrible weapon 
' s generally found single ; and some are of opinion that the 
animal is furnished with but one by nature ; but there is at 
present the skull of a narwhal at the Sladthouse as Amster- 
dam, with two teeth. The tooth, or, as some are pleased 
Y call it, the horn of the narwhal, is as straight as an arrow, 
j ol,t thickness of the small of a man’s leg, wreathed 
t ! le manlier we sometimes see twisted bars of iron ; it 
th^ 61 ^ t0 a s ^ ar P point; and is whiter, heavier, and harder 
0 p U ", lvol T' It j s generally seen to spring from the left side 
the head directly forward in a straight line with the 
