AMPHIBIOUS QUADRUPEDS. 



ties of the morse than the seal ; and they are rare- 

 ly found, except in the frozen regions near the 

 pole. They were formerly more numerous than 

 at present ; and the savage natives of the coasts 

 of Greenland destroyed them in much greater 

 quantities before those seas were visited by Eu- 

 ropean ships upon the whale-fishery, than now. 

 Whether these animals have been since actually 

 thinned by the fishers, or have removed to some 

 more distant and unfrequented shores, is not 

 known ; but certain it is, that the Greenlanders, 

 who once had plenty, are now obliged to toil 

 more assiduously for subsistence; and as the 

 quantity of their provisions decrease, for they 

 live mostly upon seals, the numbers of that poor 

 people are every day diminishing. As to the 

 teeth, they are generally from two to three feet 

 long ; and the ivory is much more esteemed than 

 that of the elephant, being whiter and harder. 

 The fishers have been known formerly to kill 

 three or four hundred at once ; and along those 

 shores where they chiefly frequented, their bones 

 are still seen lying in prodigious quantities. In 

 this manner a supply of provisions, which would 

 have supported the Greenland nation for ages, 

 has been, in a few years, sacrificed to those who 

 did not use them, but who sought them for the 

 purposes of avarice and luxury ! 



[These animals inhabit the coast of Spitzber- 

 gen, Nova Zembla, Hudson's Bay, the Gulf of 

 St Lawrence, and the Icy Sea, as far as Cape 

 Tschuktschi. They are gregarious; in some 

 places appearing in herds of hundreds. They 



