NARWAL. 
13? 
sides the beaks and other remains of the cuttle-fish, 
which seems to constitute the general food of this 
animal, there was part of the spine of a pleuro - 
nectes, or flat-fish, probably a small turbot; frag¬ 
ments of the spine of a gadus; the back-bone of a 
rata ; with another of the same genus, evidently 
the JR. batis, or skate, almost entire. The latter 
was 2 feet 3 inches in length, and 1 foot 8 inches 
in breadth. It comprised the bones of the head, 
back, and tail ; the side-fins,, or wings, the eyes, 
and considerable portions of muscular substance. 
It appears remarkable, that the narwal, an ani¬ 
mal without teeth, excepting an external one, 
a small mouth, with stiff lips, and tongue that 
does not seem capable of protrusion, should be able 
to catch and swallow so large a fish as the skate, 
the breadth of which is nearly three times as great 
as the width of its own mouth. As the animal 
in which these extraordinary remains were found, 
was a male, with a horn of seven feet, I appre¬ 
hend that this instrument had been employed in 
the capture of the fishes on which it hail recently 
fed. It seems probable, that the skates had been 
pierced with the horn and killed, before they were 
devoured ; otherwise it is difficult to imagine how 
the narwal could have swallowed them; or how a 
fish, of any activity, would have permitted itself 
to be taken and sucked down the throat of a 
