THE MORSE. 



129 



Walrus, or Morae. 



The Arctic Walrus forms the nearest approach to the seals in 

 the scale of creation, and is likewise better adapted for a marine 

 life than for existence on dry land. 

 But he is completely without fore- 

 teeth, and his grinders have a broad 

 furrowed crown, like those of the 

 herbivorous animals. This differ- 

 ence of dentition points to a dif- 

 ferent food, and while the phocae 

 are such voracious fish-eaters that 

 Sir James Eoss found no less than 

 twenty-eight pounds of undigested fish in the stomach of a 

 southern seal, the walrus principally live3 on sea-weeds and 

 molluscs. The Arctic walrus or sea-horse (Trichechus rosmarus) 

 is one of the largest mammals known, as he sometimes grows 

 to the length of eighteen feet, and so thick as to measure twelve 

 feet about the middle of the body. His form is very clumsy, 

 having a small head, a strong elongated neck, a thick body, and 

 short legs, the hind feet uniting to a broad fin. With such a 

 form, no one can wonder at the clumsiness of its movements on 

 land. Admiral Beechey describes the gallop of a sea-horse as 

 probably the most awkward motion exhibited by the animal 

 tribe, for, like a large caterpillar, the unwieldly creature alter- 

 nately lowers and raises its head, in order to facilitate the 

 bringing up of the hinder parts of the body; — no easy task, 

 when we consider the immense weight of the animal, and the 

 great disproportion between the length of its body and its legs. 

 The upper lip, which is very thick, 

 and indented or cleft into two large 

 rounded lobes, furnished with thick 

 yellow bristles, contributes also but 

 little to its external beauty. From 

 under this formidable-looking infla- 

 tion protrude two large and long 

 tusks, growing, like those of the ele- 

 phant, from the upper jaw, but bent 

 downwards, not outward and up- 

 wards, as is the case with the latter. 



Their uses are also very difFerent, for while the elephant employs 

 his tusks in digging up roots, the walrus raises by their assistance 



Skull and Head of Walrus. 



