448 FOOD OF THE WALRUS. 



head also, and made diverse movements that it might 

 change its position. Thei-e was something disgusting in 

 the look of the group ; when the naked, I'ound masses of 

 fat, on which scarcely an outward liml) was to be distin- 

 guished, interlaced themselves, so to say, with each other, 

 one could readily fancy them to be a cluster of gigantic 

 worms. The almost inanimate appearance of these sea 

 monsters, which for several days together can lie motion- 

 less in the same place, together with their clumsy and so 

 to speak chaotic form, would seem to give certain bold 

 inquirers some ground for looking upon them as merely 

 animals in embryo. And I do not doubt that philoso- 

 phers who venture to speculate on the origin of the 

 human species, and who believe that mankind, once 

 inhabitants of the ocean, have by an insect-like meta- 

 morphosis been developed out of forms similar in type to 

 the cetaceous mammals which are akin to fishes, would, if 

 they had beheld what I did shuddering, feel satisfied tliat 

 their theory was still further strengthened." 



Naturalists seem not to have altogether agreed 

 as to what constitutes the food of the walrus ; some 

 authorities, Schreber amongst the rest, affirming that it is 

 not at all carnivorous. But the evidence is strong to the 

 contrary ; Scoresby having found in its stomach shrimps, 

 a kind ofcray-fish, and the remains of youns: seals. That 

 it feeds largely on certain sea-weeds, such as the Fncus 

 digitatus, has, by dissection, been ascertained beyond 

 doubt. This the animal severs with its tusks from the 

 spot where they grow ; and whilst so occupied, according 

 to Professor Loven, who visited Spitzbergcn some years 

 ago, " stands perpendicular in the water, with its head 

 directed downwards." 



The walrus, like the seal, seems capable of endur- 

 ing long abstinence. Lord Shuldham states that " it is 

 in the habit of crawling up the shore, in a convenient 



