Just as we had made fast to a floe, to take in water from a bright blue
pool which slept on its hollow surface, I was called upon deck to witness
"a seal's wedding." This ceremony was performed in a manner which, however
nuptial it may have appeared to seamen, was not quite in accordance with my
ideas of the hymeneal contract. A "seal's wedding" seems to be a seal's
dance, or a combination of gambols, which these animals act together, while
swimming rapidly forward in company, leaping above the surface of the
water, rolling, tumbling, going "tail up" after each other, and enacting a
thousand wild freaks, as unexpected from such grave-looking and
clumsy-built harlequins as can be imagined. Yet why should not the solemn
visaged, double-chinned phoca partake of one of the most universal habits
of animal life--the love of frolic?--a desire which is equally as diffused
throughout the living creation as the inclination for fighting. A shoal or
"school" of beautiful unicorns also swam past our vessel at this time; they
were particularly large, and, from the numerous horns projected from the
water, there must have been many males amongst them. They swim, dive, rise,
and blow, much like other whales, throwing up their tails when scared, or
when intending to take a deep dive, in the same manner, but exhibiting far
greater quickness in foreseeing and avoiding the approach of enemies. No
satisfactory use has been assigned for the horn that arms the male narwal,
nor should any reason be conjectured for its presence that involves its
possessor's mode of procuring food, since the same necessity would be
unprovided for in the female; yet I have sometimes thought the horn was
employed to dislodge the flat-fish, on which the unicorn feeds, from the
recesses of the bottom, where they would naturally conceal themselves at
the sight of their enemy; and if the narwal seeks its prey in company, as,
from its constant appearance in a shoal, may be concluded, the raking of
the horns amidst the weeds and ooze would be as serviceable to the unarmed
females as to their gallant consorts.
* * * * *