Page:A description of Greenland.djvu/114

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78
The Natural Hiſtory

corn or Nar-Whale's Body, it is perfectly of the ſame Shape as that of other Whales.

Miſtake of the Authors, who will have it to be a Tooth.Concerning this Animal's Horn, which has given Occaſion to ſo many Diſputes, whether it be a Horn properly ſo called, or a Tooth, my Reader muſt allow me a little Digreſſion, for to make theſe Gentlemen Diſputants aware of their Miſtake, who pretend it to be a Tooth and not a Horn; being placed on one Side of the Snout, and not on the Tip of the Fore-Head, where other Animals wear their Horns. See Wormius's Muſeum, L. III. Ch. 14. But it appears clearly to all Beholders, that it neither has the Shape of a Tooth ſuch as other Sea-Animals are endowed with; nor has its Root in the Jaws, the ordinary Place of Teeth,Its Root is not fixt in the Jaw but in the Snout. but grows out of the Snout, as may be ſeen in the Cut hereto joined. And beſides, the Abſurdity is much greater to hold, and maintain, that Animals wear Teeth on the Snout or Head, like Horns: or dare any Body deny, that the Whale's Spouts are his Noſtrils, through which he fetches
Breath,