My own opinion is, that however this one-sided horn may really
be used by the Narwhale--however that may be--it would certainly
be very convenient to him for a folder in reading pamphlets.
The Narwhale I have heard called the Tusked whale, the Horned whale,
and the Unicorn whale. He is certainly a curious example of the
Unicornism to be found in almost every kingdom of animated nature.
From certain cloistered old authors I have gathered that this same
sea-unicorn's horn was in ancient days regarded as the great antidote
against poison, and as such, preparations of it brought immense prices.
It was also distilled to a volatile salts for fainting ladies the same
way that the horns of the male deer are manufactured into hartshorn.
Originally it was in itself accounted an object of great curiosity.
Black Letter tells me that Sir Martin Frobisher on his return from that
voyage, when Queen Bess did gallantly wave her jewelled hand to him from
a window of Greenwich Palace, as his bold ship sailed down the Thames;
"when Sir Martin returned from that voyage," saith Black Letter,
"on bended knees he presented to her highness a prodigious long horn
of the Narwhale, which for a long period after hung in the castle
at Windsor.
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