ZOOLOGY. — SEA-HORSE. 505 



raise themselves upon the gunwale, and threaten to 

 overset it. The best defence against these enraged 

 animals, is, in this crisis, sea sand ; which, being 

 thrown into their eyes, occasions a partial blindness, 

 and obliges them to disperse. When on shore, they 

 are best killed with long sharp-pointed knives. 



The tusks of the walrus, which are hard, white, 

 and compact ivory, are employed by dentists in the 

 fabrication of false teeth. The skin is used in place 

 of mats, for defending the yards and rigging of ships 

 from being chafed by friction against each other. 

 When cut into shreds, and plaited into cordage, it 

 answers admirably for wheel- ropes, being stronger, 

 and wearing much longer than hemp. In ancient 

 times, most of the ropes in ships, in northern coun- 

 tries, at least, would appear to have been made of 

 this substance. When tanned, it is converted into 

 a soft porous leather, above an inch in thickness ; 

 but it is by no means so useful, or so durable as in 

 its green or raw state. 



So early as the ninth century, we have accounts 

 of the walrus being extensively fished for, on the 

 western coast of Norway *. It now occurs in per- 

 haps greater abundance, sometimes in troops of se- 

 veral hundreds together, on the shores of Spitzber- 

 gen, and neighbouring islands. It also frequents 



* Anglo-Saxon version of Orosius, by Alfred the Great. 

 — See Barrington's Translation, in his " Miscellanies/' p. 462. 



