ORDER CARNASSIER. 61 



(Trichecus rosmarus, &c, Lin.) Buff. XIII. liv. and better 

 Cook,//i. Voy. 



It inhabits all parts of the Icy Sea, surpasses 

 the strongest bulls in breadth, attains even to 

 twenty feet in length. It is covered with a 

 smooth and yellowish hair. It is in great re- 

 quest for its oil and tusks, the ivory of which, 

 though grained, can yet be employed in the arts. 

 Excellent main-braces for carriages are also 

 made of the skin*. 



The MARSUPIATA, or POUCHED ANIMALS, 



Which we range at the end of the Carnassiers, as a 

 fourth family of this great order, but which might 

 almost form a separate order, as they present so 

 many peculiarities in their economy. 



The first of these peculiarities is the premature 

 production of their young, which are born in a state 

 scarcely comparable to the development at which 

 ordinary foetuses arrive within a few days after con- 

 ception. Incapable of motion, scarcely shewing the 

 germs of limbs and other external organs, these little 

 ones remain attached to the teats of the mother until 

 they are developed as far as the young of other 

 animals are at their birth. The skin of the abdomen 

 is most usually disposed in the form of a pouch 

 round the teats, and the imperfectly developed young 



* Previous naturalists have very inconveniently joined to the 

 Morses the Lamantins and Dugongs, animals which are much more 

 closely allied to the Cetacea. 



