110 WALRUS, OR SEA-HORSE. 



Another important consequence of their resort to 

 land is their being deprived, in a great degree, of 

 their ordinary food ; some have gone so far as to say 

 of all food ; and that not only during their more pro- 

 tracted confinements, but at all times when they 

 leave the sea, and come ashore, whether it be for 

 days or weeks. Thus Lord Shuldham, in his inter- 

 esting account of the Walrus, as observed in the 

 Gulf of St Lawrence, states, that they are in the ha- 

 bit of crawling up to the shore, in a convenient land- 

 ing place, and of remaining sometimes fourteen days 

 together without food, when the weather is fair ; 

 but on the first appearance of rain they retreat to 

 the water with great precipitation ;* and Buffon ob- 

 serves he eats none upon land, which obliges him 

 to return to the sea in quest of food. The reader 

 is already aware that this abstinence is trifling in 

 comparison of what is alleged concerning many of 

 the Seals ; to whom they have another point of re- 

 semblance, viz. that the Morse has been observed to 

 discharge from its stomach considerable quantities 

 of stones. 



With regard to what constitutes the common 

 food of the Walrus Naturalists do not seem well 

 agreed. Some, as Schreber, affirm that they are 

 not at all carnivorous, whilst the more common 

 opinion that of Fabricius and Crantz is, that 

 they feed on shell-fish and the marine vegetables 

 which adhere to the bottom of the sea; and that 



Phil. Trans, vol. Ixv. 249. 



