lOi MAMMALIA. 



Morses supply diverse products of considerable importance 

 in trade ; it is for this reason that such deadly war is waged 

 against them. In the first place their tusks provide us with 

 a grainy ivory, harder and whiter than that of the Elephant. 

 These tusks detach themselves when the animal's head has 

 been boiled in a cauldron of water. Axl oil of a better quality 

 than that of the Whale is extracted from their fat ; each Morse 

 produces half a ton of it. Lastly, their skins, properly cured 

 and tanned, become very thick and substantial leather, which is 

 employed in carriage making. In the middle ages, cords and 

 cables, of a solidity which was proof against everything, were 

 made of this leather. Albert le Grand, in the fourteenth century, 

 relates that this skin had a great commercial value in the market 

 of Cologne. The Morse was unknown to antiquity. 



The Seal Family, Phocidw. — Seals have considerable analogy 

 of form to the Morse ; but they have not the long tusks which 

 characterize the latter. Their heads are rounded, and very much 

 resemble that of a Dog ; their eyes are large, bright, and very soft. 

 They can shut their nostrils when they plunge, and thus prevent 

 the water from running into the back of their mouths. Their 

 ears, which consist generall}'' of but simple openings, without any 

 exterior conch, are endowed with the same property. Their 

 mouths are furnished, from top to bottom, with three sorts of 

 , teeth — incisive, canine, and molar. The molars diifer little from 

 those of the Garni vera ; but among these we do not find, as we do 

 in other Carnivora, those molar teeth called tuherciilous. Of their 

 members one only sees the extremities, composed of five very long 

 toes, joined together by a broad membrane. Their hind feet, 

 arranged side by side, form a sort of hollow fin, the centre of 

 which is occupied by a short tail. The spine is so very flexible 

 that they can set up on end the anterior part of their body nearly 

 vertically, the hinder portion remaining horizontal. 



The large size of their brain leads one to conclude that thej' 

 have a high degree of intelligence. These animals' senses, how- 

 ever, do not appear to be very much developed. According to 

 the observations of Cuvier, their sense of sight is the best. Seals 

 see pretty well for some distance, but too great a quantity of 

 light dazzles them ; and so they have the pupil contractile, like 



