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narwhal |
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narwhal) The male narwhal, a toothed whale, has a spiral tusk up to 2.7 m/9 ft long. The tusk is actually an extended tooth which grows out of a hole in the upper lip. The tusk is not used as a weapon, although it may be used to dominate other males and to impress females. Toothed whale found only in the Arctic Ocean. It grows to 5 m/16 ft long, has a grey and black body, a small head, and short flippers. The male has a single spiral tusk growing straight out in front of its upper lip that can measure up to 2.7 m/9 ft long. (Species Monodon monoceros, family Monodontidae.) |
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Indeed, the narwhal is armed with a sort of ivory sword, a halberd, according to the expression of certain naturalists. "Dave" he was called, and he ate and slept, or yawned between times, and took interest in nothing, not even when the Narwhal crossed Queen Charlotte Sound and rolled and pitched and bucked like a thing possessed. Kadlu traded the rich, creamy, twisted narwhal horn and musk-ox teeth (these are just as valuable as pearls) to the Southern Inuit, and they, in turn, traded with the whalers and the missionary-posts of Exeter and Cumberland Sounds; and so the chain went on, till a kettle picked up by a ship's cook in the Bhendy Bazaar might end its days over a blubber-lamp somewhere on the cool side of the Arctic Circle. |
narwhal
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