VOYAGE TO GREENLAND, 
67 
bustle took place, and boats were sent in pursuit, 
from one of which, by some mismanagement, the 
harpooner made an ineifectual throw, which fright- 
ened away the whales, and they were seen no more. 
In the return of one of the boats, a unicorn, or nar- 
wal was killed, and brought to the ship : it measlired 
fourteen feet in length, and the horn four feet two 
inches. 
The head of the narwal is about one-fourth the 
length of the body, round, small, and terminating in 
an obtuse nose ; mouth small ; no teeth ; eyes small 
and nearly oval ; external opening of the ear a 
minute orifice. The orifices for respiration in the 
back part of the head duplicated within, and with a 
structure exquisitely formed, have the appearance 
of human lips ; back broad, convex, and tapering 
towards the tail, which is horizontal ; the pectoral 
fins small, and bending inwards ; colour generally 
cinereous, dappled with numerous black spots; belly 
shining white, and soft as velvet. It does not yield 
much blubber, which is only three inches and a half 
in thickness ; between the blubber and the muscles, 
is a range of tendons along the back, some of them 
as small as the finest thread. The narwal is a 
native of the northern seas, where it is sometimes 
