ORDER CARNASSIER. 513 



Spitzberg. On land they are killed with lances. They 

 are hunted for their tusks and fat. The oil is nearly as 

 much esteemed as that of the Whale. Their tusks are also 

 very valuable. The interior of these teeth is considered 

 more valuable than ivory, and is of a substance harder and 

 more compact in the larger than in the smaller teeth. A 

 moderate-sized tusk weighs three pounds, and a common 

 Morse will furnish half a ton of oil. When one of these 

 animals is encountered on the ice or in the water, the 

 hunters strike him with a strong harpoon, made expressly 

 for the purpose, which will often glide harmlessly over 

 his thick and hard skin. When it penetrates, the animal 

 is drawn towards the vessel with a cable, and then killed 

 with a lance peculiarly formed. He is then dragged to the 

 nearest land, or flat iceberg. They then flay him, throw 

 away the skin, separate the two tusks from the head, or 

 simply cut the head off, cut out the fat, and carry it to the 

 vessel." 



The female brings forth in winter, but one at a birth. 



Some say these animals eat the shell-fish at the bottom of 

 the sea. Others assert that they only eat a sea-weed, with 

 large leaves, and are not carnivorous. Buffon thinks these 

 opinions ill-founded, especially as the animal never eats 

 when on land, and is driven back to the sea by hunger. 



The form of the molar teeth would indicate the Morse 

 omnivorous ; but its stomach, like that of the Seals, simple 

 and membranous, would shew that it lived in the same way 

 as these animals. 



END OF VOL. II. 



