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Show .">_' MR. J. W. CLARK ON THE NARWHAL. [J* to be submitted to the most rigorous examination. When, however, the two tusks are of the same, or of nearly the same size, as in my specimen (see figs. 1 and 2), I think deception is simply impossible ; because any one can tell at a glance whether the right maxillary has increased in due proportion for the reception of a full-grown tooth . I find that Dr. R. Brown, in his account of the " Cetaceans of the Greenland Seas" (P. Z. S. 1868, p. 553), says, "double-horned ones (Narwhals) are not uncommon: I have seen them swimming about among the herd; and several such skulls have been preserved. Among others, there is a fine specimen, presented by Captain Graville, in the Trinity House, Hull. One of the teeth is 3' long, and the other 4'." As I have never been in Greenland, and Dr. Brown has, it may seem presumptuous in me to doubt the accuracy of the first part of the above statement. But against Dr. Brown may be advanced the testimony of Scoresby f, who says, " Two or three instances have occurred of male Narwhals having been taken, which had two large external tusks. But this is a rare circumstance." The testimony of CrantzJ is to the same effect. Again, the great interest which was excited by the Hamburg specimen must surely have stimulated whalers to do their best to acquire so valuable a prize ; and yet in 186 years only ten or eleven specimens have been obtained ! Moreover I think we should always question the accuracy of any observation made from a ship's deck of animals that are swimming close together in a herd. It is so very easy to transfer the characteristics of one to another; nay, almost impossible to avoid doing so. For this reason I should be disposed to reject tbe instance cited by Sir E. H o m e §, who says, " A very intelligent captain in the Greenland fishery, who has gone thirty-five voyages, never saw a Narwhal with two tusks but once, and then from the masthead. The left appeared to be two-thirds longer than the right, and was above 5' out of the water; the point of the right appearing just above the surface, so that the small one must have been about 3'." Surely it is most probable that the two tusks belonged to different animals. It is to observations of this kind that we owe the Dolphins with two dorsal fins, and other monstrosities of Cetacean literature. On the other hand I was told by Mr. Wareham, the well-known dealer in china and curiosities, in whose shop I have had the opportunity of examining a great number of Narwhal tusks, bought by him out of the ship ' Diana,' of Hull, that the mate informed him that two of them were taken out of the same skull. I mention this fact, as it may indicate that whalers are indifferent to every consideration except that of getting as much ivory as possible, and do not stop to consider whether their prize has two tusks or one. Dr. Brown has made a strange mistake with reference to the specimen from Hull, which he describes so particularly. Feeling anxious * Professor Flower tells ine that there is a bidental cranium in the Warwick Museum with the tusk on the right side inserted artificially. t Arctic Eegions, i. p. 490. X History of Greenland, i. p. 105. **• Lectures, i. p. _.~>9. |