HI 



pnocin.i:. 



PHOCID^E. 



Id 



la adult*, according to Mr. MacGillivrsy, from whom the formuU is 

 Ukrn. UM inci-on ar obliterated, except the Utrrml pur of the upper 

 jaw ; UM fifth gnnd-r Uo disappears, and sometime* th fourth. 



r AMMTIU, the Walru*, Sea-Horae, Mone, and Sea-Cow of the 

 British ; None, Vaoba Marine, Cheral Marin. and Bete a la grande 

 Dent of the French. It U the Hone-Whale or Whale-Hone (H val -Ro*) 

 of Gather the Norwegian, who, about the year 880, made hU report of 

 it to Alfred, a* having in iU teeth bones of great price and excellency, 

 one of which he brought to the king on bis return from hi* voyage 

 beyond Norway ; alao Roemar of the Norwegians ; Mom or Monh of 

 the KuMians; and Monk of the Laplanders. 



The neck U abort, body very bulky, broadest round the cheat, and 

 diminishing toward* the very short tail Hair close ; colour, according 

 to Kabricius. varying with age, the young being black, then becoming 

 brown, and gradually paler and paler, till the animal in old age 

 become* white. Lambs very short Inside of the flippers defended 

 by a horny kind of coat, or callous, produced, in all probability, by 

 climbing over ice and rocks. Length from 10 to 15 or even 20 feet in 

 the case of the Urgrst bulls. Girth 8 or 10 feet, and upwards. Length 

 uf the tusks when cut out of the skull generally from 15 to 20 inches, 

 omrtimes SO inches, and their weight from 5 to 10 Ibs. 



It is a native of the Icy Sea and Northern Ocean, Spitzbergen, Nova 

 Zambia, Hudson's Kay, Gulf of St Lawrence, Ac. Rare on the north 

 coast* of Britain. 



Dental Formula : Incisors, -; Canine.', iLzl; Molars, 5^5 =31. 

 4 1 1 5 5 



tedioua, Martens compares their gait to a kind of jerking, probably 

 like that of the Seals, but he says they can make considerable springs, 

 and can advance pretty rapidly with the help of their teeth. 



Moist* sod Tiuk of \Valr iw. (K. Curler.) 



The content* of the stomach of a walrus noticed by Sir E. Home, 

 ouuaiaird entirely of the Fucui digilatiu, and Sohreber affirms that it 

 is not at all carnivorous. Fabricius and Crantz are of opinion that 

 wslru.se* fred on (bell-nali and marine vegetables which adhere to the 

 bottom of Uie aea, and that one of the use* of their tusk* U to root 

 np their food fiom the spot to which it is fixed. BuObn state* that 

 they live on fi.h, like the seal*, especially on herrings and the smaller 

 Babe*. The Rev. Dr. Seoresby found in their stomach* ihrimps, a 

 kin.) of crawfish, and the remains of young seal*. Upon the whole of 

 this evidence, the conclusion would be that the Walrus is omnivorous. 

 The molar teeth certainly ap|ar to be more adapted for bruising the 

 long branch*, of Ma-weed* (Fme<a digital*.), which Mr. Fisher 

 informrd Sir Evenrd Home filled thn stomach of the animal that he 

 examined, than for dividing fish or flenh ; and the probability U, that 

 though the Walrus does not abstain entirely from carnivorous habits, 

 marine plant* form the bulk of it* food. The tutk* must be a great 

 help a* ke-book* or grappling* in assisting the animal to climb upon 

 U toe from the at*. Though they iwim so rapidly, that, according 

 to some authorities, it i* as difficult to follow them with boaU in 

 rowing a* the whale itoelf, their progres* on land is awkward and 



at a birth, either on shore or on the ice. When born the young is 

 about the size of a year-old pig. Till taught by fatal experience, the 

 Walrus seems to be a fearless animal, and to be undisturbed by the 

 face of man ; but he soon learn* hi* lesson of distrust. Still the 

 animal is not incautious, for Captain Cook never found the whole herd 

 asleep, some being always on the watch. These, on the approach of 

 the boit, would rouse those next to them, and the alarm being thus 

 gradually communicated the whole herd would presently awake. In 

 the North Pacific Ocean he got entangled with the edge of the ice, on 

 which lay innumerable sea-hones. They were lying in herds of hun- 

 dreds, huddling one over the other like swine, and were roaring and 

 braying very loud ; and indeed in the night or in foggy weather they 

 gave the voyager* notice of the vicinity of the ice before it could be 

 seen. They were seldom in a hurry to get away till after they had 

 been once fired at, when they would tumble over each other into the 

 sea in the utmost confusion. Vast numbers of them would follow 

 the boats and come close up to them, but the flash in the pan of a 

 musket sent them down instantly. Before they were put upon their 

 guard by persecution a* many as 300 or 400 were killed at a time. 

 That they are not without courage or sympathy for their wounded 

 companions there is ample testimony. When Martens wounded one 

 others speedily surrounded the boat, and whilst some endeavoured to 

 pierce it with their tusks, others raised themselves out of the water 

 and endeavoured to board her. Captain Phipps, afterwards Lord 

 Mulgrave, relates that when near a low flat island opposite Waygat's 

 Straits, in 1773, two of the officers went in a boat in pursuit of sea- 

 horses. They fired at one and wounded it The animal was alone 

 when it was wounded, but diving into the sea it brought back a num- 

 ber of others. They made a united attack upon the boat, wrested an 

 oar from one of the men, and were with difficulty prevented from 

 staving or oversetting her ; but a boat from the Carcass joining that 

 from the Racehorse, they dispersed. Captain Phipps adds that one 

 of that ship's boats bad before been attacked in the same manner oft 

 Moffen Island. Sir Edward Parry encountered about 200 in Fox's 

 Channel, lying piled as usual over each other on the loose drift-ice. 

 A boat's crew from both the Fury and the Hecla went to attack them, 

 but they made a desperate resistance, some with their cubs mounted 

 on their backs : and one of them tore the planks of a boat in two or 

 three places. Their parental affection is great The boats from the 

 Resolution and Discovery were hoisted out to attack sea-horse* in 

 Behring's Strait*. Captain Cook states that on the approach of the 

 boat* to the ice all the walruses took their cubs under their fins, and 

 endeavoured to escape with them into the sea. Several whose young 

 were killed and wounded, and were left floating on the surface, rose 

 again and carried them down, sometimes just as the people were going 

 to take them into the boat ; and they might be traced bearing them 

 to a great distance through the water, which was coloured with their 

 blood. They were afterwards observed bringing them up at times 

 above the surface, as if for air, and again diving under it with a 

 dreadful bellowing. The female in particular whose young had been 

 destroyed and taken into the boat, became so enraged that she attacked 

 the cutter, and struck her tusks though the bottom of it 



That the Walrus is capable of a degree of domestication, in youth 

 at least, appears from the testimony published by John De Loot, who 

 gives no bad wood-cut of a full-grown animal and a young one, and 

 relates that " ^Elius Everhardus Vorstius, M.D. et Professor," aaw a 

 Cub ten weeks old, according to those who had brought it from Nova 

 Xcmbla, about the size of a mastiff (canis Britaunici majoris), which 

 followed it* master (magno nisu et grunnitu) for its food, consisting of 

 a mash of oatmeal or millet (pulmentarium ex avena miliove), which 

 it ate slowly (et auctu magi* quam deglutiendo). The tusks had not 

 yet projected from the mouth, but tubercles were perceived in the 

 upper lip. There were two beads of adult*, and those who showed 

 them said that with the tusk* they ascended rocks and suspended 

 themselves from them, and that their food consisted of the long and 

 great leave* of some plant growing from the bottom of the sea. 

 " Viili ibidem," adds Yontius, "penem ejusdem animalis osseum, 

 rotundum, cubitum et amplius longum, crassum, ponderosum, ao 

 solidum, in fine prope glandem longe crasaiorem ac rotundiorem. 

 Hujus pulvere ad calculum pellendum Muscovite utuntur." 



The flesh of the Walrus is highly valued by the inhabitant* of the 

 Arctic Region', nor does it seem to have come amiss to our northern 

 voyager*. Cook, after stating that he procured some, being in want 

 of fresh provision, observe* that till then they had thought them 

 Sea-Cow* (Mannlta probably), *o that they were not a little disap- 

 pointed, especially some of the seamen, who, from the rarity of the 

 thing, bad been feasting their eyes for some days. Nor would they, 

 continues Cook, have been disap|H>iuted now, nor known the differ- 

 ence, if they had not had *ome on board who had been in Greenland, 

 "ml declared what animals these were, and that no one ate them. 

 Notwithstanding this however, Cook and his crew lived upon them as 

 long as they lasted, n<t there were few on board who did not prefer 



