108 WALRUS, OR SEA-HORSE. 



idea that the old occasionally shed their teeth : of 

 this opinion we have seen no confirmation, although 

 it has been stated that many full grown animals have 

 rather short teeth, and some are seen with only one ; 

 which, however, is satisfactorily accounted for from 

 the many accidents to which they are exposed. 

 Previous to the development of the tusks, their phy- 

 siognomy is of course very different from what it 

 subsequently becomes ; and it is under these cir- 

 cumstances that, their countenances having a dis- 

 tant resemblance to the human, they have some- 

 times been mistaken for men, and have thus fre- 

 quently given origin to the story of the merman or 

 mermaid. This occurs the more readily, as these 

 animals, as well as the other Amphibia, and all the 

 aquatic Mammalia, are in the habit of rearing their 

 heads above the water, and attentively gazing around 

 upon ships, or any other passing object Accord- 

 ingly, we find Mr Scoresby expressly mentioning, 

 " I have myself seen a Sea- Horse in this position, 

 and under such circumstances that it required little 

 stretch of imagination to mistake it for a human 

 being. So like, indeed, was it, that the surgeon of 

 the ship actually reported to me his having seen a 

 man with his head just appearing above the surface 

 of the water." * 



With the forms which we have now described, 

 and more especially after the details previously 

 given, it will readily be understood that the Sea- 



* Lib. cit. i. 504. 



