86i CASSELL'S POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. 



Hore they remain occasionally, for many days, without food, when the weather is fine but on the 

 slightest appearance of rain they precipitate themselves into the sea. Before the Americans made a 

 traffic of the oil of the walrus, they have been known to assemble in these islands to the number of 

 eight or ten thousand ; but they have since greatly decreased. 



The natives of the Magdalene Islands do not attack the walruses on their first arrival but 



allow them to repose quietly for some time, and frequently show themselves, to accustom them not to 



e afraid of men. At a fixed time they assemble in boats, and land in the dark, near the place where 



these animals are reposing, and separate those that are farthest inland from those that are 



next the water. This the fishermen call making a cut, and a dangerous enterprise it is They 



1 as many walruses as possible of those next the water, and then attack the others From the 



darkness of the night and the effect of torchlight the animals get bewildered, ami, straying further 



from the water, become an easy prey. Sometimes, in a single attack of this kind, from a'thousand to 



mteen hundred have fallen victims in one night. 



The first operation is to skin the animal, and cut it into slices of two or three inches in 

 breadtk T. ie se are imported by America for carriage traces, and the short pieces are sent to 

 England for making into glue The coat of fat which lies nder the hide is afterwLs removed, to be 

 into oil of which each, walrus produces nearly two barrels. The tusk,, which weigh from ten 

 to twelve pounds each, are then sawn off, and sell at considerable prices, as they are ivofy of a very 



used for artificiai teeth - T 



AQUATIC MAMMALS.* 



\\ E have now arrived at the concluding Order, which consist, of Aquatic Mammals, with fin-like 

 antenor extremities, the posterior extremities being absent, or rather, having their place supplied by a 

 large horizontal caudal fin, or tail ; without an external ear, or hair on tlir external integument 



" 



, 

 oft neck" ! S C mpreSSed aS t0 leave the animal * any outward appearance 



The Cetaceous Mammals, whose abode is either in the sea or the great rivers, resemble fishes so 

 sely in external appearance, that it is scarcely surprising that even some of the earlier zoologists 

 regarded hem as belonging to that class. This notion accords with the statements commonly mad 

 as to whales : thus, we hear of the whale^Aery, and of boats arriving with few or many M 



f the Cetacea there are two divisions : the Plant-eaters and the Flesh-eaters. Scientifically 

 the )rmer ai . e ca llcd S^renia or sirens, and are that class popularly known as tritous and mermaids.' 

 hey differ from the seal and walrus in having no hind limbs, resembling, in these respects, the 

 common animals of the whale kind, while from those, again, they differ in having no blow-holes on he 



the head, bu nostrils much resembling those of several quadrupeds. Neither do they, t 

 wholly amphibious, like the whale,, live upo,i a fish, but entirely on a vegetable diet; on such 



* *" ~> "* 



THE STELLER.t 

 THIS animal is from twenty-six to twenty-eight feet in length ; the skin is rugged and knotty like the 



t Stellerus borealis. 



