68 R. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. 



vegetables than to hold and pierce the Fish's scaly cuirass. I have 

 generally found in its stomach various species of Crustacea, shelled 

 Mollusca, chiefly Mya truncata and Saxicava rugosa, bivalves 

 very common in the Arctic regions on banks and shoals, and a 

 quantity of green slimy matter which I took to be decomposed Algae 

 which had accidentally found their way into its stomach through 

 being attached to the shells of the Mollusca of which the food 

 of the Walrus chiefly consists.* I cannot say that I ever saw 

 any vegetable matter in its stomach which could be decided to 

 have been taken in as food, or which could be distinguished 

 as such. As for its not being carnivorous, if further proof 

 were necessary I have only to add that whenever it was killed 

 near where a Whale's carcass had been let adrift its stomach 

 was invariably found crammed full of the krang or flesh of 

 that Cetacean. As for its not being able to hold the slippery cui- 

 rass of a Fish, I fear the distinguished author of " The British 

 " Quadrupeds " (1st ed., p. 287) is in error. The Narwhal, which 

 is even less fitted in its want of dentition for an ichthyophagous 

 existence, lives almost entirely upon Fishes and Cephalopoda. 

 Finally, the experimentiLm crucis has been performed, in the 

 fact that Fish have been taken out of its stomach ; and a 

 most trustworthy man, the captain of a Norwegian sealer, has 

 assured me (without possessing any theory on the subject) that 

 he has seen one rise out of the water with a Fish in its mouth. 

 In its stomach I have often seen small stones or gravel ; and 

 round its atluk considerable quantities are always seen ; this is 

 a habit which it possesses in common with Phoca harhata and 

 even Beluga caiodon. These stones may be taken in accidentally, 

 but still they may serve some purpose in its digestive economy. 



Next to man, its chief enemy is the Polar Bear. The Eskimo 

 used to tell many tales of their battles ; and though I have never 

 been fortunate enough to see any of these scenes, yet I have 

 heard the whalers give most circumstantial accounts of the Walrus 

 drowning the Bear, &c. These accounts may be taken merely 

 for what they are worth ; but still this shows that they are not 

 wholly confined to Eskimo fable, and ought therefore not to 

 be hastily thrown aside. There is no doubt, however, that the 

 Bear and the Walrus (like all the Pinnepedia) are but indifferent 

 friends. Another pest 1 believe I discovered upon this animal 

 for the first time, in 1861, in the shape of two undescribed species 

 of Hcematopinus, one invariably infesting the base of the mysta- 

 chial bristles, and the other its body. I also found the Seals of 

 Davis's Strait much troubled with another species {HcBmatopinus 

 phoccBy Lucas). t I bave seen the Walrus awuki7ig loudly on the 

 ice, tumbling about, and rushing back from the water to the ice, 

 and from the ice to the water, and then swimming off to another 



* In Spitzbergen Crenella Icevigata constitutes a great portion of its food ; 

 the tusks being used to dig it out of the clayey bottom. Torell, in R. S. E. 

 Trans., xxiv., p. 629 ; and in " Spitzberg. Mollusk./' i., p. 19 ; also Malmgren, 

 in Wiegmann's Archiv, 1864. 



t Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. Edin., 1863. 



