POKSILD — OBSERVATIONS ON NARWHALS 
9 
Godhavn and Skansen, well acquainted with the habits of the narwhal 
in ice, declare positively that the male carefully guards his tusks from 
bumping into firm and tough ice. Once Ludvig Geisler, from Skansen, 
found a single large male sleeping near a lead in very hummocky ice, 
its mighty tusk projecting out over the surface of the ice and leaning 
against it. The animal awoke before Geisler could get his rifle clear 
and very slowly and cautiously drew back the tusk until it was quite 
clear, when it rapidly dived away. 
In the drawing of G. Kleist (cf. Porsild, l.c., 1918, p. 221) illustrating 
the most ordinary form of savssats, may be seen a number of male 
narwhals emerging from a very small hole with their tusks resting on 
the surface of the ice. Here natural openings in the ice are gradually 
diminished by freezing, and the stronger males push away the weaker 
ones and the females. Eventually the animals become so worn out 
that they stay at the hole constantly, resting their tusks on the ice, 
and do not quit it again. 
Whales of other species are also able to break breathing holes in ice. 
It is as common with white whales {Delphinapterus leucas) as with 
narwhals; some natives state that the holes broken by the white whales 
are a little trapeziform in shape and thus distinguished from those of 
the narwhals, but others deny this. Giesecke mentions in his diary a 
case where a harpooned northern right whale ran with the line under 
the ice and broke ice that was more than a foot thick. Numerous 
cases of a similar kind are related by him from the hunting of that 
species at Godhavn in olden time. The humpback whale {Megaptera 
hoops) has ordinarily left the waters of Disko Bay when the ice covering 
sets in, but sometimes it happens that a single straggler is delayed by 
the lure of unusually large schools of the polar cod {Gadus saida), and 
thus is surprised by the ice covering. It then breaks open large trian- 
gular or trapeziform holes. Some years ago a young specimen had 
made a trial in very hummocky ice intermingled with calf-ice from 
collapsed icebergs near my dwelling. It probably had become stupe- 
fied by the blow and had died by drowning or from wounds in the 
head. It was found dead and frozen in the ice by a dog. 
It was not possible to ascertain even approximately the ratio between 
the males and the females, young and full-grown individuals, of the 
narwhals. Full-grown males with big tusks were most eagerly pur- 
sued as long as the animals were numerous. I do not doubt that the 
number of females by far exceeds that of the males. The ventral 
side of both sexes was considerably lighter colored than the back, but 
