296 TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



are used in climbing, but they seem to be principally 

 employed to scrape and dig amidst the sand and shingle 

 for the molluscs and other "shell -fish," which constitute 

 the principal food of the walrus. It also feeds on sand- 

 worms, starfishes, and shrimps. Various kinds of sea- 

 weed have been found in its stomach, though it is not 

 certain that such vegetable substance was intentionally 

 swallowed. 



It extends as far North as explorers have yet gone, 

 and on the land round Hudson's Bay, Davis' Straits, and 

 Greenland but in rapidly decreasing numbers. It still 

 frequents Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, and the western- 

 part of the north coast of Siberia, as also northern 

 Kamtschatka, Alaska, and the Prybiloff islands. Fossil 

 remains show that it once inhabited France, Belgium, 

 the United States, and England, and it has occasionally 

 visited the British Isles during the present century. 



The word " walrus " is a modification of the Scandi- 

 navian name " whale-horse." " Morse " is from the 

 Russian " morss." The Lapp word is " morsk." 



Few animals have been more thoroughly misrepresented 

 in fig" ires, than has the walrus. The reader interested to 

 see copies of these, or who desires to be furnished with 

 full details concerning all the animals here noticed, is 

 referred to an admirable work on North American 

 Pinnipeds, by J. A. Allen, and published at the Govern- 

 ment Printing Office, Washington, in 1880. One of these 

 strange figures represents the walrus with a fish-like 

 body, covered with scales, a pig's head, tusks directed 

 upwards, and long ears. Others, hardly less monstrous, 

 also depict the animal with ascending tusks; but in 

 1613, an admirably correct figure of the creature was 

 given by Hessel Gerard, in which the hind feet are 

 represented as being turned forwards. It is curious 



