OEDEE OE CETACEA. 
77 
tide which, was running eight miles an hour, from Blackwall to 
Greenwich, and then on to Deptford. 
This animal is celebrated for the combats in which it engages 
with the giant of the seas — the Whale. Grampuses go in troops, 
and if they meet with a Whale they rush upon it, hustle and 
worry it ; and then, when overcome with fatigue, it opens its 
mouth, they devour its tongue. 
Narwhal .— Narwhals differ very little from Porpoises in their 
general form and the colour of their bodies ; but at the first glance 
they are easily to be distinguished from all other Cetaceans by the 
singular tusk with which nature has provided them. Of the two 
incisive teeth implanted in the upper jaw of the Narwhal, one is 
almost entirely an abortion, whilst the other, by a sort of organic 
compensation, is prodigiously elongated in a straight line, and is 
simply an enormous stiletto, which is rounded with a spiral 
fluting, a sharp point at the extremity, and which is of one-third 
or half the length of the animal. This strange creature has 
then but one tooth — and what a tooth ! It is, in fact, a sword 
of ivory.* 
There have been, both among the ancients and the moderns, 
many stories about the Narwhal’s tooth. It was formerly con- 
sidered to be like the horn of the Pnicorn, which was situated on 
the middle of the forehead. This fabulous being resembled, they 
said, the Horse and the Stag. Aristotle and Pliny have described 
it, and it is represented on many ancient monuments. It 
was adopted by the chivalry of the middle ages, and has often 
decorated the trophies in military fetes. 
Our ancestors attributed to the tooth of the Narwhal, which 
they called the tooth of the Unicorn, marvellous medicinal virtues. 
They considered it an infallible antidote to all poisonous sub- 
stances ; they were persuaded that it counteracted all the hurtful 
properties of venemous substances. Charles IX., dreading lest he 
should be poisoned, was very careful to put into his cup of wine a 
piece of the Sea Unicorn’s tooth. Ambroise Pare was the first who 
dared to lift up his voice against these errors. 
Very soon afterwards the Unicorn ceased to be an object of 
exorbitant price on account of its rarity and its supposed virtues. 
* In the Museum of Natural History at Amsterdam, there is a Narwhal skull 
with two fully developed tusks. It is the only instance known. — E d. 
