CLASS .mammals: order carnivora. 



mg. 67. 



51 



Flrr. 68. 



Bosmdrus (Mms, Walrus. ^5. 



Rosmaridae. — The Walms, unlike the seal, has neither 

 lower incisors nor canines, while the upper canines project 

 downward, sometimes two feet. By 

 means of these and the vacuum- 

 forming soles of its feet, it often 

 ascends almost perpendicular ice- 

 bergs a hundred feet high. It is 

 omnivorous, feeding on shrimps, 

 small fish, young seals, and marine 

 vegetables, using its tusks for grub- 

 bing up the plants on the sea-bottom. 

 The parental afEection of the dams 

 is great, and on the first alarm they 

 take their cubs under their fins and 

 escape to the water.* 



Canine Teeth and Undmyaw 

 of Walrue. 



tritons, sirens, sea-nymphs, and mermaids. All the Phocidse have the singular 

 hahit of swallowing stones, as many as four pounds of sharp pebhles having heen 

 found in a single stomach, hut no satisfactory explanation of this phenomenon has 

 been given. 



* The Seal and the Walrus are the subsistence of the inhabitants of the Arctic 

 regions. The flesh furnishes food ; the fat, light and fuel ; the lining of the 

 intestines, windows for their snow-huts; the skin, clothes, thongs and boats; 

 the tendons supply thread and bow-strings ; and the teeth, hunting implements. 



