Christine Hershey, age 11, of Visalia, Calif., For her question:

Were there ever real unicorns?

Artists of the Middle Ages painted his portrait and embroidered him in glowing tapestries. They pictured him as a noble horse with a fierce horn growing like a cabled spear from his wide forehead. No one had seen him, but everyone was sure he existed. His horn was said to bring luck and the rich bought unicorn horns from northern sailors.

Those so called unicorn horns were really narwhal tusks. As late as 122, visitors to Siberia thought they found a fossil skeleton of a unicorn. But scientists said it was the remains of a tusky mammoth. No one has seen or found the remains of a unicorn. For the wonderful beast never existed. He is a mythical dream animal created by man's busy imagination.