CLASS MAMMALS: ORDER CARNIVORA. 51 



Fig. 67. 



Fin. 68. 



Rosmdrus obZsus, Walrus. 



Rosmaridae. The Walrus, unlike the seal, has neither 

 lower incisors nor canines, while the upper canines project 

 downward, sometimes two feet. By 

 moans of these and the yacuum- 

 forming soles of its feet, it often 

 ascends almost perpendicular ice- 

 herg3 a hundred feet high. It is 

 omnivorous, feeding on shrimps, 

 small fish, young seals, and marine 

 vegetables, using its tusks for grub- 

 bing up the plants on the sea-bottom. 

 The parental affection of the dams 

 is great, and on the first alarm they 

 take their cubs under their fins and 

 escape to the water.* 



Canine Teeth and Underjaw 

 of Walrus. 



tritons, sirens, sea-nymphs, and mermaids. All the Phocidse have the singular 

 habit of swallowing stones, as many as four pounds of sharp pebbles having been 

 found in a single stomach, hut no satisfactory explanation of this phenomenon has 

 been given. 



* The Seal and the Walrus are the subsistence of the inhabitants of the Arctic 

 regions. The flesh furnishes food ; the fat, light and fuel ; the lining of the 

 intestines, windows for their enow-huts; the skin, clothes, thongs and boats; 

 the tendons supply thread and bow-strings j and the teeth, hunting implements. 



