AMPHIBIOUS CARNIVORA. 



549 



of that animal. They live upon fish, always eat in the water, and 

 can close their nostrils when they dive, by means of a kind of valve. 

 Seals exist in great numbers in the Arctic Seas, and are the principal 

 support of the Greenlanders and Esquimaux of Labrador, who live 

 on their flesh, and clothe themselves, make their summer huts, and 

 build their boats with their skins. The chase of the Seal is their 

 principal business, and success in this pursuit forms at once their 

 fortune and their glory. 



The Morses, or Walrus (Trichecuse*}, resemble the Seals in the limbs 

 and general form of their body, but differ much in the shape of their 

 head and teeth. Their lower jaw is without either incisors or canines, 

 but two enormous canine teetii or rather tusks grow from the upper 





FlG. 474. HARP SEAL AND WALRUS. 



jaw and project downwards. These remarkable tusks are sometimes 

 two feet in length, and of proportionate thickness ; their chief use 

 seems to be to enable the animal to detach from the ground the 

 substances upon which he feeds, and to assist him in climbing 

 out of the water on to the rocks where he sleeps. The Walrus 

 inhabits the icy seas, it surpasses the largest ox in the thickness of its 

 body, which is covered with a smooth and yellowish hair, and 

 attains even to twenty feet in length. Its oil is in great request, and 

 the ivory of its tusks, which is much employed in the arts. 



* 6pi, rpixos, thrix, trichos, hair from the long wiry hair of the 

 muzzle. 



