138 ADVENTURES IN THE NORTHERN SEAS. 



skins are rough and rugose, like that of a rhinoce- 

 ros, and they are generally quite covered with scars 

 and wounds, inflicted by harpoons, lances, and bul- 

 lets which they have escaped from, as well as by 

 the tusks of one another in fights among them- 

 selves. I have frequently observed them fighting 

 with great ferocity on the ice. They use their 

 tusks against one another very much in the manner 

 that game-cocks use their beaks. From the ani- 

 mal's unwieldy appearance and the position of his 

 tusks, one is apt to fancy that the latter can only 

 be used in a stroke downward ; but, on the contra- 

 ry, they can turn their necks with great facility and 

 quickness, and can strike either upward, downward, 

 or sideways with equal dexterity. I have little 

 doubt but that in the amatory season these con- 

 flicts are often fatal. 



Old bulls very frequently have one or both of 

 their tusks broken, which may arise either from 

 fighting or from using them to assist in clambering 

 up the ice and rocks. These broken tusks soon get 

 worn and sharpened to a point again by the action 

 of the sand, as the walrus uses his tusks, like the el- 

 ephant and the boar, for plowing his food out of 

 the ground, with this difference, that the operations 

 of the sea-elephant — as he ought to be called, in- 

 stead of the sea-horse — are carried on at the bottom 

 of the sea. 



I have frequently opened the stomachs of wal- 

 ruses, and found their food to consist of quantities 



