86 VOYAGE INTO 



For sports sake I went once along with them upon the ice 

 and run one through the body with my sword several times 

 which he did not matter at all ; I fell into the snow up to 

 my knees, and he barked at me, and offered to bite me, which 

 I avoided, and when I got up again I ran after him and gave 

 him several wounds more, which he was not concerned at, 

 but ran swifter than I could, and flung himself off from the 

 ice into the sea, and went down to the bottom. 



5. Of the Sea-Horse, called by some the Morse.^ 



The sea-horse is not unlike unto the seale in the shajje of 

 the body, only is much bigger than the other : he is as 

 big as an ox. Their legs are also like those of the seale, for 

 they have five claws as well on the fore as the hinder feet, 

 but they have only short nails : their head is thicker and 

 rounder, and also much stronger. Their skin is an inch 

 thick, chiefly about the neck, covered with short mouse- 

 coloured hair, some reddish, some grey, some have but little 

 hair, and are mangy, and full of scars that are bitten, and 

 look as if they were flea'd ; every where about their joints 

 their skin is full of lines, as the inside of a man's hand: they 

 have two great and long teeth in their upper jaw-bone, that 

 hang down below their under lips, that are about a foot and 

 two foot long, sometimes they are longer : the young ones 

 have no great teeth at all, but they grow in time as they 

 grow older. All the sea-horses have two firm long teeth ; 

 yet I have seen old ones that had but one ; it may be that 

 sometimes they loose them when they fight, or otherwise 

 they may fall out of themselves, for I observed that some of 

 them had foul, hollow, rotten teeth. These two long teeth 

 are esteemed beyond ivory, because they are so very white, 

 and are dearer ; they are close and firm Avithin, and heavy, 

 but the root thereof is hollow. Of their teeth are made 

 knife-hafts, boxes, &c. The Jutlanders make buttons for 



^ The Walrus or Morse {Trichecus Rosmarus). 



