DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SEAL AND WALRUS. 253 



would soon become abortive as legs, and grow more 

 into the resemblance of fins ; the hind legs would 

 somewhat resemble the tail of a fish, and would do 

 duty for that organ ; so his real tail would almost 

 disappear, as is the case with the seal and the 

 walrus. 



The legs of the walrus, although almost abortive^ 

 are still legs, and not fins, as he can walk on all 

 four on land or ice. Those of the seal are more 

 abortive still, and the latter can not walk, strictly 

 speaking, but only jerk himself along. Nobody 

 who has seen the anatomy of a whale's paddles 

 can deny that even they are legs and not fins, al- 

 though, of course, only used to propel him in the 

 water after the manner of fins. 



The resemblance between the seal and the walrus 

 is not in any respect so close, either in their ap- 

 pearance or in their habits, as one would be apt to 

 suppose by looking at the clumsily stuffed specimen 

 of a walrus in the British Museum, or at the few 

 absurd caricatures of this animal which exist. The 

 walrus in every way partakes much more of the 

 nature of land animals than the seal, which again 

 seems more closely allied to the cetaceans. For 

 instance, the walrus can double his hind legs under 

 him and walk upon them like any other beast, 

 while the seal always keeps his hinder extremities 

 stretched backward like the tail of a cetacean. The 

 walrus can not remain under water for nearly so 

 long a period as the seal, neither can he sustain the 



