It is not astonishing that we don’t know much of its anatomical
characters, as it never had the honour to be dissected by the able hand
and keen scalpel of an anatomist. Yet it is clear that if the animal
opens its mouth, there is an opportunity to learn something about its
teeth, tongue, etc. Generally it keeps its mouth shut, once only this
is stated (126), as if the observer watched an opportunity to see it
opening its mouth. Though we have several accounts mentioning the
animal opening its mouth (39, 41, 48, 65, 81, 109, 118, 144, 149),
_teeth_ are not always seen, either because the distance was too great,
or because the position was not favourable. Teeth are delineated (fig.
19); they are mentioned in 65, 81, 109, 118, described as formidable in
109, and as jagged in 118.
Of the animal’s _tongue_ we have the following observations: “There
rose from his head or the most forward part of him, a prong or spear
about twelve inches in height, and six inches in circumference at the
bottom, and running to a small point. I thought it not the tongue, as
I saw the prong before I saw the head, but it might have been” (43,
distance forty rods, with a spyglass); “I was struck with an appearance
in the front part of the head like a single horn, about nine inches
to a foot in length, and of the form of a marlinespike. There were
a great many people collected by this time, many of whom had before
seen the same object and the same appearance” (44); “he threw out
his tongue about two feet in length, the end of it appeared to me to
resemble a fisherman’s harpoon” (48); “he raised his tongue several
times perpendicularly, or nearly so, and let it fall again” (48); “he
threw out his tongue a number of times, extended about two feet from
his jaws, the end of it resembled a harpoon” (48); “he threw his tongue
backwards several times over his head, and let it fall again” (48);
“the colour of his tongue was a light brown” (48).
To the descriptions of the teeth and tongue no great value can be
attached, as such organs need close examination. The length of the
tongue is, anatomically spoken, not an impossibility, as it is known
that animals with a long neck generally have a long tongue.