220 DIVISION I. VERTEBHAL ANIMALS. — CLASS I. MAMMALIA. 



alternately. Tlicy continue to do this for six or seven weeks, and the shores 

 arc again abandoned till the end of August, when a herd of young seals, of 

 Loth sexes, comes on shore for about five or six weeks, and then retires to 

 the water. The young are at first black ; in a few weeks they become gray, 

 and soon after obtain their coat of fur and hair." 



When the South Shetland seals were first visited, they had no fear of men, 

 and would rather seek than shun their society ; they would even lie still 

 wliile tlieir neighliors were killed and skinned, but afterwards they acquired 

 lialjits for counteracting danger, by placing themselves on rocks, from which 

 they could, in a moment, precipitate themselves into the sea. The agility of 

 these creatures is very great, and Captain A^'eddell says he has seen them 

 often outrun a swift-footed seal-hunter, and escape. The opinion that these 

 seals defend themselves by throwing stones at their pursuers with their tails, 

 has no foundation in truth ; it probably originated in the supposition that an 

 involuntary act of the animal, growing out of its peculiar mode of progres- 

 sion, was an intentional one, of a belligerent character. When the seal pro- 

 pels itself along the stony beach, it draws its hind flappers forward, thereby 

 shortening the body, and projecting itself by tlie tail, which, when relieved 

 from the eflort by the fore flippers, throws u[) a quantity of stones to the dis- 

 tance of some yards. 



Genus TuiCHECirus. The learned and indefatigable missionary, Crantz, 

 has supplied an excellent, though brief description of the walrus. " The 

 head is oval, but the mouth is so small that I could not quite put my fist into 

 it. On both lips, and on each side of the nose, is a kind of fungus-like skin, 

 a hand's breadth, stuck with a plantation of monstrous bristles, that are a good 

 span long, and as thick as straw ; they are like a three-stranded cord, pel- 

 lucid, and give to the animal a majestic, thmigh grim aspect. The nose is 

 very little raised, and the eye is not larger than that of an ox. I could per- 

 ceive no eyelid, and as I was first searching fir the eye and temples, a 

 (ireeenlauil boy pressed the skin, and out sprang the eyes; so that I found 

 I ciiuld squeeze tJiem in and out the depth of an inch ; whence I might con- 

 clude that this creature had also a shelter for its eyes in stormy weather, by 

 drawing them into a safe repository. I could scarcely find the little ap- 

 paratus of the ears. Having no sharp incisors, it cannot catch fish and 

 chew them like the seals ; and the two long tusks or horns growing out of 

 its face over the nose, and bending down over the mouth, so as almost to 

 barricade it, seem to be more of an impediment than a help to it." 



In addition to the above characteristic description, we will only say that 

 the limbs are a kind of fin-like legs ; the fore paws are from two to three 

 feet in length, and being expansive, can be stretched to a considerable dis- 



