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CHAPTER: SGEvir 
THE MORSE. 
Is there such an animal as the sea-horse, the sea-cow, or the 
sea-elephant ? Certainly not, but there is a huge marine mammal, 
the morse (7richechus rosmarus), which has been called by all 
these names more or less appropriately. 
The morse inhabits the Arctic Regions, amid ice and icebergs. 
It is to be met with in Behring’s Straits. It is larger and more 
ugly than the seal. Some have been known as much as twenty- 
five feet long; it may therefore justly be ranked amongst the 
monsters of the deep. The skin of the morse is thick, corrugated, 
and thinly covered with short hair, of a reddish, fallow colour. 
Under the skin is a thick layer of fat. The eyes are small. Its 
lip bristles with yellow hairs, semi-transparent, and of the thickness 
of straw. Out of its strong, heavy muzzle spring two large 
ivory tusks, long and slightly greenish, which form very hard 
and strong weapons of defence. These tusks are bent back 
like the head of a pick-axe; and the animal uses them to grapple 
solid bodies, or to root up plants in the sea, or even to scrape 
the ground at the bottom of the sea, and turn up the small 
animals which furnish its food. The morse has also grinders, 
and strange to say, the teeth in the upper jaw fit into the lower 
teeth like a pestle into a mortar. This animal evidently has 
nothing which claims for it any affinity to the horse, cow, or 
elephant. In fine weather hundreds of morses may be seen 
gambolling in the water, rending the air with their roars, 
which are like the bellowings of a bull. Others may be seen 
dozing or reclining idly in the sunshine. When they sleep there 
is always a vigilant sentinel, watching with outstretched neck 
and open eyes, who gives instant alarm to the troop if any 
danger threatens. 
