294 



TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



long line is made fast to it, the end of which is thrown 

 to a boat lying just outside the breakers ; they are then 

 hauled through the rollers and towed to the vessel, when 

 the oil is extracted by boiling the blubber. . . . The oil 

 produced is superior to whale oil for lubricating purposes. 

 Owing to the continual pursuit of the animals, they have 

 become nearly, if not quite, extinct on the Californian 

 coast, and the few remaining have fled to some unknown 

 point for security." 



Fig. 



^p 



THE WALRUS. 



Our readers may gather from the foregoing sketch 

 some notion of the group of seals, and so be enabled the 

 better to understand, by contrast, the nature of the sea- 

 lion. But there is an intermediate group which consists 

 of the one very singular form known as the walrus or 

 morse. Of these animals there are two varieties, one of 

 which is found in the North Pacific and the other in the 

 North Atlantic. Many naturalists, however, regard both 

 these as constituting but one species. 



The w^alrus differs from the seals in that the hind feet 

 are naked and turned forwards in walking on land, 

 though not so completely as in the sea-lions. It differs, 



