WALRUS. 



427 



toe to the little one ; while on the hind feet the great and the little toe are the 

 longest, and the intermediate ones are the shortest. The head of the seal re- 

 sembles that of a dog, and they possess the mild and intelligent countenance 

 characteristic 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 pride. 



FJG. 474.- HARP SEAL AND WALRVS. 



The Morses or "Walrus (TricJiccus}*. resemble seals in their limbs and 

 general form of their body, but differ from them in the shape of their head and 

 teeth. Their lower jaw 'is without either incisors or canines, but two enor- 

 mous canine teeth, or rather tusks, grow from the upper 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 wal- 

 rus 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 is 

 much employed in the arts. 



* 6pl, rpixos, thrix, trichos, hair: from the long wiry hair of the muzzle. 



