108 STORIES OF BIRDS AND BEASTS 



all about his chest and neck are layers of oily fat or 

 blubber, which make a life raft of him, while his thick, 

 tough hide, scarred with wounds from rocks, harpoons, 

 Bears' claws, and the tusks of rivals, keeps him from 

 growing water soaked and chilly. He is warm blooded, 

 and yet able to stay under water half an hour at a time 

 without coming up to .breathe. 



" How does he feed this great body of his, and lay 

 up the layers of fat that draw his hide in creases like 

 seams in rocks ? By digging clams and water roots, 

 scraping mussels and other shell-fish from the kelp beds 

 with his tusks, and he also uses these tusks as hooks to 

 help in pulling himself over the rocks and shoals of* the 

 summer breeding-grounds." 



"Why doesn't he eat seaweed?" said Dodo. "I 

 should think it would be a great deal of trouble to 

 open clams enough to feed such a 'mense thing ! " 



44 All of this tribe of Pinnipeds, as the Wise Men call 

 them, live chiefly on animal food," said the Doctor, 

 " their teeth showing them to be flesh eating or car-niv- 

 o-rous, but Olaf will tell you that they do not stop to 

 open the clams they are not so dainty in their fish- 

 ing as the Crows ! " 



"No, they swallow them by the bushel, shells and 

 all," continued Olaf. " If it hurts them or not, who 

 can say, for they tell no one their secrets, but it may 

 -be that they are complaining when they cry and roar, 

 as they do at all times of the year, with a growling 

 honk that might be the call of a wild goose goblin. 

 Sometimes in the spring and early summer, the season 

 of cool fog on the northwest breeding islands, I have 

 stood on a cliff and could not tell by sight alone if it 



