CHAPTER IV.

RARE SPECIMENS OF OCEAN LIFE.

The Famous Narwhal-Many Teeth in One-Strange Superstitions as to the SeaUnicorn-A Formidable Weapon-The Best Kind of Ivory-Narwhal FishingAn Arctic Black Hole of Calcutta—Immense Size of the Narwhal-The Huge Grampus-"The Killer" Capturing Seals-Story of the Whale-Flashes like Lightning from the Waves-The Hairy Medusa-A Wake of Silvery Light— "All Hands Ahoy!"-Whale Fishing and its Dangers-Sea-Birds and Their Curious Habits-The Elegant Black-Backed Gull-Laughing Gull—“Haw, ha, ha, Haw!"-Birds that are Pirates-The Sea Mew and its Island Home--The Wonderful Island of Saint Kilda—Humming-Birds of the Ocean-Colors that Dazzle the Eye-Beautiful Specimens of Scaly-Finned Fishes-Flag-Fish— Coral-Fish-Rock-Fish-Whip-Fish-Duke-Fish-Emperor-Fish-The SharpShooter of the Sea-Good Aim and Successful Shot—A Fish With Two Lungs— Burrowing in the Mud-Savage Fighters-A Fish that Hisses-The FrogCatcher-Curious Climbing Fish-Experiments with the Mud-Jumper-A Sluggard that Proves to be Swifter than an Arrow.

ARWHALS differ very little from porpoises in their general form and the color of their bodies; but at the first glance they are easily to be distinguished from all other cetaceans by the singu

lar tusk with which nature has provided them. Of the two incisive teeth implanted in the upper jaw of the narwhal, one is almost entirely wanting, whilst the other is prodigiously lengthened 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. In the Museum of Natural History at Amsterdam and other collections, there is a narwhal skull with two fully developed tusks.

There have been, both among the ancients and the moderns, many stories about the narwhal's tooth. It was formerly considered to be like the horn of the unicorn, 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 fêtes.

In former times people attributed to the tooth of the narwhal, which they called the tooth of the unicorn, marvelous medicinal virtues. They

considered it an infallible antidote to all poisonous compounds; they were persuaded that it counteracted all the hurtful properties of venomous 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 Paré was the first who dared to lift up his voice against such errors. Very soon after the unicorn ceased to be an object of exorbitant price on account of its supposed virtues. It then passed from the apothecary's laboratory to the naturalist's collection, where it was long preserved under the name of horn or tusk of the unicorn.

The true nature of this horn was shown for the first time by a naturalist who had found it affixed in its socket in a skull similar to that of a whale. But it was not till 1671 that Frederick Martens gave a tolerably correct description of the narwhal. These narwhal live in the neighborhood of Iceland and in the seas which wash the shores of Greenland. They gather together in the creeks of the ice islands, and travel in bands. It would be very difficult to take them if they did not live in troops; for, when isolated, they swim with such rapidity as to escape from all pursuit. But when they are near together they mutually embrace each other, and are easily caught. When the fishing-boats glide cautiously in between their long files they close their ranks, and press against each other so much that they paralyze each other's movements; they become entangled in the tusks of those near them, or else, lifting their heads in the air, they rest their tusks on the backs of those which are in front of them. They can from that minute neither retreat, nor advance, nor fight, and they fall under the blows of the sailors, who are in the boats.

How the Narwhal Obtained its Name.

The Icelanders manufacture with the narwhal's tusks their arrows for the chase, and the poles which they use in the construction of their huts; but they do not eat its flesh, because they believe it to be venomous. The name this animal bears was given to it by the Icelanders. The meaning of the word is, "Whale that feeds on dead bodies;" for the word nar in their language means dead body or carcass, and the word whal, whale. This is not the case, however, with the Greenlanders, and other inhabitants of the North, who esteem it excellent. They dry it by exposing it to smoke. The oil furnished by the narwhal is, it is said, preferable to that of the whale.

Naturalists are not agreed as to the use of the narwhal's formidable weapon. They say that they use it in their attacks on the whale, and that they kill this monster by running their sword into its belly. Lacépède says that their tusks have been found deeply implanted in the bodies of

whales; but other authors formally deny that battles ever take place between these two terrible combatants. Narwhals sometimes rush with prodigious speed and force against vessels, which they no doubt take for some gigantic prey. If the animal attack the ship on the side as it is sailing, the tooth, imbedded in the wood, breaks off; but if it attack it from behind, the narwhal remains fixed to the ship; it is then dragged along and towed till it dies.

A Savage Weapon.

Certain naturalists, relying on the fact that the narwhal's tusk is smooth towards the end, which is sometimes rounded, and, as it were, worn away, have concluded that the animal uses its horn for piercing ice, when it wants to come up and breathe and to save itself a long journey to the open water. Others have thought that these traces of wear and tear of its weapon arise from the friction of it in sand or against rocks, when the animal is looking there for its food, which consists of cuttle-fish, flat-fish, cod, ray, oysters, and other mollusks. And, lastly, it has been stated that the narwhal uses its natural lance for attacking its prey, for killing it, and perhaps also for tearing it up before it devours it. Thus the narwhal's tooth would seem to be at the same time an instrument which serves to satisfy the wants of the ordinary life of the animal, useful to it for its respiration, its nutrition, and, at the same time, an offensive and defensive weapon.

Narwhals are not always brutal and warlike. Scoresby saw some very merry bands of these marine animals; they raised their horns and crossed them, as if they were going to fence, and they followed the ship with a sort of wild curiosity. The ivory of the narwhal's tusk is an object of value; it is more compact, harder, and susceptible of a finer polish than that of the elephant. It is on this account that visitors to the library of Versailles are shown a walking-stick made of narwhal ivory inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Of this ivory is made an ancient throne of the kings of Denmark, which is to be seen in the Castle of Rosenberg.

A most excellent observer remarks that the narwhal is gregarious, generally travelling in great herds. I have seen, he relates, a herd of many thousands travelling north in their summer migrations, tusk to tusk and tail to tail, like a regiment of cavalry, so regularly did they rise and sink into the water in their undulatory movements in swimming. It is very active, and will often dive with the rapidity of the right whale, taking out thirty or forty fathoms of line. These schools are not all of one sex, but consist of males and females mixed. The use of the tusk has long been a matter of dispute: it has been supposed to use it to stir up

its food from the bottom; but if such were the case, the females would be sadly at a loss. They seem to fight with them; for it is rarely that an unbroken one is obtained, and occasionally one may be found with the point of another jammed into the broken place, where the tusk is young enough to be hollow, or entirely lost close to the skull.

A Popular Breathing Place.

Fabricus thought that these horns were to keep the holes open in the ice during the winter; and the following occurrence seems to support his view: In April, 1860, a Greenlander was travelling along the ice in the vicinity of Christianshaab, and discovered one of those open places in the ice which, even in the most severe winters, remain unfrozen. In this hole hundreds, of narwhals were protruding their heads to breathe, no other open spot presenting itself for miles around. It was described as akin to an Arctic Black Hole in Calcutta, from the crowding of the narwhals in their eagerness to keep to the place. Hundreds of Eskimo and Danes resorted thither with their dogs and sledges and while one shot the animal another harpooned it, to prevent its being pushed aside by the anxious crowd of fishermen. Dozens of narwhals were killed, but many were lost before they were brought home, the ice breaking up soon after. In the ensuing summer the natives found many dead washed up in the bays and inlets around. Neither the narwhal nor the whale are timid animals, but will approach close to, and gambol for hours in the immediate vicinity of a ship.

In the female of the narwhal the tusks are rudimentary, but are about ten inches long, rough, and with no inclination to spire; in fact, not unlike a miniature piece of pig-iron. On the other hand, the undeveloped tusk in the male is smooth and tapering, and wrinkled longitudinally. Double-tusked narwhals are not uncommon. They have been seen swimming about among the herd, and several such skulls have been preserved. The color of the animal is grayish, or velvet-black, with white spots, sometimes roundish, but more frequently irregular blotches of not certain outline, running into one another. There are no spots on the tail or flippers, but waxy-like streaks shade off on each side at the junction of the tail, which is white at the line of indentation. The female is more spotted than the male. The young is, again, much darker; and individuals have been seen which were almost white, like the one Anderson describes as having come ashore at the mouth of the Elbe. In a female, killed at Pond's Bay, the stomach was corrugated in complicated folds, as were also the small intestines. It contained crustaceans, bones of fishes, and an immense quantity of the horny jaws of some species of