Narwhal The tusks were staples of the cabinet of curiosities. European knowledge of the tusk's origin developed gradually during the Age of Exploration, as explorers and naturalists began to visit Arctic regions themselves. The narwhal was one of two possible explanations of the giant sea phenomenon written by Jules Verne in his 1870 novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea". Verne thought that it would be unlikely that there was such a gigantic narwhal in existence. The size of the narwhal, or "unicorn of the sea", as found by Verne, would have been . For the narwhal to have caused the
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea public-domain translation, which is available from a number of sources, notably a recent edition with the title "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas" (). In 2010 Walter released a fully revised, newly researched translation with the title "20,000 Leagues Under the Seas" — part of an omnibus of five of his Verne translations titled "Amazing Journeys: Five Visionary Classics" and published by State University of New York Press. In 1998 William Butcher issued a new, annotated translation from the French original, published by Oxford University Press, , with the title "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas". He includes detailed notes,