William Kastern, age 10, of Milwaukee, Wis.,

Does the narwhal still exist?

There is a sea horse no bigger than a mouse, There is a sea cucumber which is actually an animal. There is a sea robin which is a fish, a sea lion which is a seal and many other ocean dwellers who turn out to be very different from their names, Most of them were named because they reminded people of some land creature or other. The narwhal was named the sea unicorn by sailors of long ago.

Though no one has ever seen a real live unicorn, there are many fanciful descriptions of him. He was supposed to be a magnificent whit horse, strong and fleet of foot. But, we are told, he was different from all other horses. The unicorn had a long, spiral horn growing straight out from his horsy snout, A few hundred years ago most people believed he existed. But modern scientists tell us that he was just an imaginary animal who never existed at all.

But the people of the Middle Ages were sure that the unicorn existed, A rich merchant might show you a long, thin# spiral horn and tell you that it came from a unicorn. He might say that he had bought it from a sailor, The wonder horn* he would say, was worth every penny of the high price he paid for i,t because it cured all kinds of sickness,

The sailor who sold the unicorn horn, however, knew better, For he took it from the body of a narwhal, the so‑called sea unicorn. Though the horsy unicorn never existed, the sea unicorn was very real indeed, And his children still enjoy life in the chilly waters of the Arctic Ocean and the north Atlantic.

They still exist because the old timers did not catch all of them to sell their valuable horns. When people learned that the so‑called unicorn horns were fakes, narwhal hunting went out of style,

It was no longer profitable. Nowadays, the narwhal is hunted only by the Eskimos, who use his fatty oil to light their lamps and who eat his flesh.

The narwhal is related to the whales and dolphins. He is a sea dweller, but he needs to breath air. He is a warm‑blood mammal, born as a live baby and fed on mother's milk. A big narwhal maybe twenty feet long, He is a mottled, dark grey fellow with a flat, wide forehead., The slim, spiral horn grows straight out above his mouth. It is made of ivory end may be nine feet long. A few Males have two horns, but most of females have none at all,

Actually, the slender spear is a tusk, or specialized tooth. It is an overgrown left upper canine or dog‑tooth, Though it is a dangerous weapon, Mr, Narwhal uses it only in fights with other narwhals, As a rules he spears other creatures only by accident,

Sailors of Arctic seas often see and hear the narwhals in their icy waters. They feed on cod and cuttlefish and other meaty sea dwellers. When the narwhal comes to the surface, he lets the air out of his blowhole with a shrill whistle. And Mamma Narwhal hollers at junior with a low roar.