7V//: 8EA LK/'//.\.\ I'. 



418 



The Walrus is manifestly the most remarkable of all marine animals in n-si>ect to its 

 uncouth bulk. It is a puzzle, seemingly. Tin- reader should look at tin- enormous sjH--imen 

 nf thi- creature in tin- Museum at Central Park, to form anything approaching an adequate 

 idea of it- pro|Mtriions. \Vhcii\\e observe tin- imiui-iix- bulk, almost unpn>\ ided with limbs 

 (for the hitter are ao email they seem out of all proportion to the mp-iirement.s), the wonder is, 

 how can th- nvaiuiv climb from th- \\ater to the ice or cliffs. The stout tusks are very ser- 

 viceable, doubtless, but they seem to our limited com prehension entirely in the way. It Li 







ML ILKPHAST.-Cyi 



difficult to see how the creature can feed with those ivory canines directed straight downwards. 

 Nature never fails of its purposes, but there are instances of organization and structure that 

 surprise us and baffle our comprehension. 



The Walrus is seen in vast herds at times, frequenting both polar seas. Two well-marked 

 secies are known, that of the Pacific coast differing in some particulars from that of the 

 Atlantic. 



ANOTHER powerful and grotesque Seal now encages our attention. This is the ELEPHANT 

 SEAL, or SEA KI.KIMIAXT, so called not only on account of the strange prolongation of the 

 nose, which bean some analogy to the proboscis of the elephant, but also on account of it.s 

 elephantine size. Large sjiecimens of this monstrous Seal measure as much as thirty feet in 

 length, and fifteen or eighteen feet in circumference nt the largest part of their Ixxlies. 



The color of the S-a Elephant is rather variable, even in imliviiluals of the same sex and 

 age, but is generally as follows. The fur of the mule is usually of a bluish-gray, which some- 

 times deepens into dark brown, while that of the female i- duiker, and variegated with sundry 

 dapplings of a yellow hue. This animal is an inhabitant of the southern hemisphere, and is 



