B. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. 57 



right side of the upper jaw still remained, but loose ; on the 

 other side the corresponding alveolus was not yet absorbed.* 



Shaw (Gen. Zool, i., p. 234) has figured two species of this 

 animal, and inferred their existence principally from the differences 

 in the representations given by Johnston and Cook. Curiously 

 enough, Pontopiddan tells us that the Norwegian fishermen in his 

 day had an idea that there were two species. The whalers declare 

 that the female Walrus is without tusks ; I ha\e certainly seen 

 females without them, but again, others with both well developed. 

 In this respect it may be similar to the female Narwhal, which has 

 occasionally no " horn " developed ; I do not think, however, that 

 there is more than one species of Walrus in the Arctic regions or 

 elsewhere. 



Habits ayid Food. — On the floes, lying over soundings and shoals, 

 the Walruses often accumulate in immense numbers, and lie 

 huddled upon the ice. More frequently, in Davis's Strait and 

 Baffin's Bay, they are found floating about on pieces of drift ice, 

 in small family parties of six or seven ; and I have even seen only 

 one lying asleep on the ice. Whether in large or small parties, 

 one is always on the watch, as was long ago observed by the 

 sagacious Cook ; the watch, on the approach of danger, will rouse 

 those next to them ; and the alarm being spread, presently the 

 whole herd will be on the qid vive. When attacked, unlike the 

 other Seals (unless it be the Cystophora), it will not retreat, but 

 boldly meet its enemies. I was one of a party in a boat which 

 harpooned a solitary Walrus asleep on a piece of ice. It imme- 

 diately dived, but presently arose, and, notwithstanding all our 

 exertions with lance, axe, and rifle, stove in the bows of the boat; 

 indeed, we were only too glad to cut the line adrift and save our- 

 selves on the floe which the Walrus had left, until assistance could 

 reach us. Luckily for us the enraged Morse was magnanimous 

 enough not to attack its chopfallen enemies, but made off grunting 

 indignantly, with a gun-harpoon and new whale-line dangling 

 from its bleeding flanks. Its atluk or breathing-hole is cleanly 

 finished, like that of the Seals, but in much thicker ice, and the 

 radiating lines of fracture much more marked.f The food of the 

 Walrus has long been a matter of dispute, some writers, such as 

 Schreber, Fisher, and others, going so far as to deny its being 

 carnivorous at all, because Fisher saw in the stomach of one 

 ** long branches of seaweed, Fucus digitatus ''; and Prof. Bell 

 seems even to doubt whether the small number of grinding-teeth, 

 and more especially their extreme shortness and rounded form, 

 are not rather calculated to bruise the half-pulpy mass of marine 



* The anatomy of the Walrus has been described in a beautiful and exhaus- 

 tive memoir (Trans. Zool. Soc., 1870) by Dr. Murie, F.L.S., F.G.S., an eminent 

 anatomist and zoologist, who has added much to our knowledge of the marine 

 Mammalia. 



t There are many interesting details of the habits of the Walrus in Kane's 

 " Arctic Explorations " and " First Grinnel Expedition," in Hayes's " Boat 

 Journey " and " Open Polar Sea," and in Belcher's " Last of the Arctic 

 Voyages." 



