Emily Dickinson Lexicon

NAR'WAL, or NAR'WHAL, n. [G. narwall.]

The Monodon monoceros, a cetaceous mammal found in the northern seas, which grows to twenty feet in length. The spiracle of this animal is on the anterior part of the skull. When young it has two tusks, but when old it has but one, which projects from the upper jaw and is straight. From this circumstance of its having one tusk only, it has obtained the name of the sea unicorn or unicorn fish. Pennant. Encyc.