334 



CARNIVORA. 



animal of the North Polar Regions, and is seldom found straying south 

 of the Arctic Circle, except on the coasts of North America, where it 

 sometimes reaches latitude 60°. It is most abundant on the shores of 

 Spitzbergen, but it is not found between longitude 80° and 160° east, or 

 between 100° to 15° west of Greenwich. 



The Walrus, Trichcchus Rosmarus (Plate XXVI), which is also com- 

 monly called the Sea Horse, is truly a monster of the deep. When fully 

 grown, it has been known to reacli a length of from twenty to twenty- 

 four feet, and weighs two thousand to three thousand pounds, but is usu- 

 ally rather smaller. Its huge body is thickest in the middle, but does 

 not taper down to the tail so finely as in the seals ; the powerful limbs 

 project outwards and downwards to such an extent that the elbow and 

 knee-joints are plainly to be seen ; the feet have all five fingers, with short 

 blunt claws which do not reach the end of the fingers ; the tail is a mere 

 flap of skin. The head is small, the muzzle short, the upper-lip fleshy, 

 the under-lip swollen, on both sides of the muzzle is a considerable num- 

 ber of round, stiff bristles, and in front there protrude two enormous tusks 

 two feet and upwards in length, growing downwards from the upper- 

 jaw. The skin is nearly devoid of hair, and of a liver-brown color. 



The Walrus has been long known, and has formed the subject of 

 countless fables. Albertus Magnus says that in the North Sea is a whale- 

 elephant that climbs up rocks with its tusks. The fishermen come up to 

 it when it is asleep, raise the hide near the toil from the blubber, and 

 make it fast with a rope to the rocks. They then pelt the creature with 

 stones ; upon which it drops out of its skin and falls into the sea, where it 

 is helpless. Olaus Magnus adds his quota of legend. A few centuries ago, 

 the Walrus was found much farther to the south than it is now ; Hector 

 Boece describes it as bemg a regular visitor of the Scotch coasts, and 

 stray ones have been seen on the shores of the Orkney islands and the 

 Lewis as late as 1857. The swimming powers of the Walrus would 

 enable it easily to accomplish such a journey, but it is, more than all 

 other animals of its kind, restricted by the necessity of procuring food tc 

 certain regions. It avoids the deep sea, and sailors know that the sight 

 of one is an indication of land in the neighborhood, for experience has 

 told them that it seldom leaves the pack-ice rovmd the islands. There 

 vast herds are found, as many as seven thousand having been seen in a 

 single herd, clambering in endless succession on to the shore. A single 

 ice-floe often has twenty walruses sleeping on it. When the herd is 



