222 WALRUS. 



able degree, and more or less in younger. Sometimes 

 the grinders are, moreover, flattened at the points, 

 and frequently they are worn obliquely down to the 

 level of the jaw. The mastication of fuci, on which 

 it has been alleged that the Walrus feeds, could 

 hardly produce these effects. 



In the Walrus the teeth are thus similar in num- 

 ber to those of the Seals, with the exception of the 

 lower canines, which are deficient. The incisors 

 have been differently represented by all authors, 

 probably because they have not had an opportunity 

 of examining the skull of a sufficiently young indi- 

 vidual. 



The Walrus is generally supposed to live on 

 fishes, like the Seals ; but Mr Bell is of opinion 

 that " the small number of grinding teeth, and more 

 especially their extreme shortness and rounded 

 form, are calculated rather to bruise the half pulpy 

 mass of marine vegetables, than to hold and pierce 

 the slippery hardness of the fish's scaly cuirass ;" 

 and refers in corroboration of this idea to Mr 

 Fisher's having seen in the stomach of one the 

 "long branches of sea-weeds, Fucus digitatus? 

 Several cetaceous animals, however, of which the 

 teeth become nearly as much flattened as those of 

 the Walrus, live on fish. To the inhabitants of the 

 Northern regions this animal is of great importance, 

 as it supplies them with food, oil for their lamps, 

 and a covering for their huts and canoes. Great 

 numbers were formerly killed by the whale-fishers, 

 for the sake of their blubber or subcutaneous fat. 



