336 VERTEBRATA. 



snout. All the molars are cylindrical, short, and truncated obliquely. Between the two canines 

 arc two incisors similar to the molars, but Cuvier observes that the greater number of authors 

 have not considered them as incisors, although they are implanted in the intermaxillary bone; 

 and between them, besides, in young individuals, are two small and pointed teeth. Inmost other 

 respects there is a general resemblance between the organization of the walrus and that of the 

 seal ; hut the development of the brain is not so great in the former as it is in the latter, and the 

 walrus appears not to be gifted with so high a degree of intelligence as the seal, though it is far 

 from being stupid, lu its formation the neck is short, body bulky, broadest round the chest, and 

 diminishing toward the very short tail; hair close; color varying with age, the young being 

 black, then becoming brown, and gradually paler and paler, till the animal in old age becomes 

 white; limbs very short; inside of the flippers defended by a horny kind of coat, or callus, pro- 

 duced, in all probability, by climbing over ice and rocks; length from ten to fifteen, or even 

 twenty feet in the case of the largest bulls; girth eight or ten feet and upwards; length of the 

 tusks when cut out of the skull generally from fifteen to twenty inches, sometimes thirty inches, 

 and their weight from five to ten pounds. It seems to be nearly omnivorous, devouring chiefly 

 marine vegetables which adhere to the bottom of the sea, and using its tusks for grubbing them 

 up; it also feeds on herrings and smaller fishes, shrimps, craw-fish, and the like. It is a native 

 of the Northern Ocean, Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, Hudson's Bay, Gulf of St. Lawrence, Bind- 

 ing's Straits. In some places it is seen in groups of several hundreds. 



The tusks are a great help as ice-hooks or grapplings in assisting the animal to climb upon the 

 ice from the sea. Though they swim so rapidly that it is difficult to follow them with boats, their 

 progress on land is awkward and tedious; their gait being a kind of jerking, probably like that 

 of the seals, but they can make considerable springs, and advance pretty rapidly with the help 

 of their teeth. They appear to be monogamous, and consequently are exempt from the ter- 

 rible combats which are the result of the jealousies of the polygamous seals. The female is said 

 to bring forth her young, one only at a birth, either on shore or on the ice. When born, the 

 young is about the size of a year-old pig. Till taught by fatal experience, the walrus seems to 

 be a fearless animal, and to be undismayed by the face of man; but he soon learns his lesson of 

 distrust. Still the animal is not incautious, for Captain Cook never found the whole herd asleep, 

 some being always on the watch. These, on the approach of the boat, would rouse those next 

 to them, and the alarm being thus gradually communicated the whole herd would presently 

 awake. Tn the North Pacific Ocean he got entangled with the edge of the ice, on which lay in- 

 numerable sea-horses. They were lying in herds of hundreds, huddling one over the other like 

 swine, and were roaring and braying very loud; and indeed in the night or in foggy weather 

 they gave the voyagers notice of the vicinity of the ice before it could be seen. They were sel- 

 dom in a hurry to get away till after they had been once fired at, when they would tumble over 

 each other into the sea in the utmost confusion. Vast numbers of them would follow the boats 

 and come close up to them, but the flash in the pan of a musket sent them down instantly. Be- 

 fore they were put upon their guard by persecution as many as three or four hundred were killed 

 at a time. 



That they are not without courage, or sympathy for their wounded companions, there is ample 

 testimony. When Martens wounded one, others speedily surrounded the boat, and while some 

 endeavored to pierce it with their tusks, others raised themselves out of the water and endeav- 

 ored to board her. Captain Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, relates that when near a low flat 

 island opposite Waygat's Straits, in 1773, two of the officers went in a boat in pursuit of sea-horses. 

 They fired at one and wounded it. The animal was alone when it was wounded, but diving into 

 the sea it brought back a number of others. They made a united attack upon the boat, wrested 

 an oar from one of the men, and were with difficulty prevented from staving or upsetting her; 

 but a boat from the Carcass joining that from the Racehorse, they dispersed. Captain Phipps adds < 

 that one of that ship's boats had before been attacked in the same manner off Moffen Island. 



Sir Edward Parry encountered about two hundred in Fox's Channel, lying piled as usual over 

 each other on the loose drift-ice. A boat's crew from both the Fury and the' Ileela went to attack 

 them, but they made a desperate resistance, some with their cubs mounted on their backs; and • 



