6a 
THE NARWHAL. 
It feems yet doubtful whether this extraordinary wea- 
pon of this fifh grows naturally fingle or double in the 
animal. There is a Ikull at prefent in the Stadthoufe of 
A, mjlerdam, which is armed with two of thefe teeth, 
which demonilrates, that in fome fubjecls at leaft, this 
inftument is double* : But thofe which are taken with 
one tooth, give no fort of indication of having been de- 
prived of the other by any accident : there appears no 
focket, nor any remains of a fecond tooth in the oppo- 
fite jaw ; all there is plain and even. 
This extraordinary inflrument generally fprings from 
the upper jaw on the left fide ; into the focket of which 
it reaches a foot and an half. It is ftriated, and twilled 
in fpires, as we fometimes fee a bar of iron ; its length is 
from feven to eight feet, and of the thicknefs of a man’s 
arm : It is of a white colour, harder and heavier than 
ivory f. From the fize of this weapon, moll naturalifts 
confider it as an horn, rather than a tooth ; but it refem- 
hles in every refpeft the tulks of a boar, or an elephant - 
it rifes like them, from a focket in the jaw ; it is of the 
fame llrong fubllance, and poffelfes the fame lolidity. 
Willoughby regards it as the only real example of an uni- 
corn afforded by nature ; and after a minute examination 
of all the fubllances that are impofed upon the public for 
the horns of the unicorn, he pronounces them impofi- 
ticns on the credulity of mankind £. 
This naturalill had the greater merit in making a dif- 
eovery of this nature, becaufe in his time the capture of 
whales was not very frequent, and the means of detec_ 
tion 
i 
* Goldfmith’s Nat. Hift. vol. 6. 
f Idem ibidem. 
| Vlk Ichthyo!. lib. ii, p. 43* 
