FUNCTIONS OF THE TUSKS. 137 



FUNCTIONS OF THE TUSKS. The functions of the tusks have 

 been also a matter of dispute, more especially as to whether they 

 are to any degree organs of locomotion. Eeferences to their use in 

 effecting a landing upon ice-bergs or upon icy or rocky shores have ' 

 conie down to us from the earliest times, and enter into nearly 

 all the accounts of this animal that have hitherto appeared. That 

 they are thus used rests upon the testimony of a multitude of 

 observers, yet some have claimed that this is not one of their 

 functions. Malmgren states most explicitly that these reports 

 are false, and that the tusks are useful only as weapons, and for 

 the far more important service of digging up the mollusks, that 

 almost exclusively constitute their food.* Other writers, how- 

 ever, who appear to have had equally as good opportunity for 

 observation, refer to the tusks as being of considerable service to 

 the animals in climbing. Cranz says: "The use the Sea-cow 

 raakes of these tusks seems to be in part to scrape muscles and 

 such kind of shell-fish out of the sand and from the rocks, for these 

 and sea-grass seem to be its only food; and also to grapple and 

 get along by, for he fastens them in the ice or rocks, and thus 

 draws up his unwieldy helpless trunk ; and finally 'tis a weapon 

 of defence both against the white bear on the land and ice, and 

 the sword-fish in the sea."t 



Most of the other early accounts of the Walrus contain simi- 

 lar statements respecting the use of the tusks as locomotive 

 organs, and many later writers also refer to this use of them. 

 Mr. Brown says: "I have seen it also use them [the tusks] to 



* Says Malmgren : u In Betreff der eigentlichen Bestinimung der Z aline 

 "bin icli iin Staude die nothige Aufklarung zu geben. Es lasst sich'nicht 

 bestreiten, dass dieselben als Waffen angewendet werdeu mid als solche aucli 

 furchtbar siiid ; dftss sie aber auch als Lokomotionsorgane dienen sollten, 

 ist eine Fabel, und daher der Name Odontobcenus Steenstr. nicht passend. 

 Gleich den Robben bewegen sick die Walrosse nur mit Hiilfe ikrer Fiisse, 

 sowohl auf dem Eise als an den sandigen Meeresgestaden, an denen sie bis- 

 weilen kinaufsteigeu, urn zu scklafen, oft zu Hunderten ueben einander. 

 Die Bestimmung der Zahne ist eine ganz andere und fur die Existenz des 

 Walrosses bei weiteni wichtigere, denn nur mit Hiilfe derselben kann es zu 

 seiner Nahrung kominen. Ich fand, dass das Walross sich aussclilieslicli 

 von zwei Muscheln, Mya tnmcata und Saxicava rugosa, niihrt, welche in einer 

 Wassertiefe von 10-50 Faden 3-7 Zoll in dem Bodenlehm eingegrabeu leben. 

 Uni an diese zu koiumen, muss das "Walross sie aus dem Lelim aufgraben." 

 Ofversigt Vetensk. AJcad. Forliandl. Stockholm, 1863, p. 131, as translated in 

 Archiv fiir Naturgesch., 1864, p. 68. 



t The History of Greenland, etc. , Brethren's Society's English translation, 

 London, 1767, p. 127. 



