THE SEA-HpRSiq. , Z^O Q LO C Y, 



Xo CREATURE is SO rcpulsivc in appearance 

 as an old male walrus, or morse f rosinarus); 

 the head, large in itself, seems ridiculously 

 small set upon the immense neck, and 

 the ungainly body is all swollen and tremu- 

 lous with the excessive deposit of flabby fat 

 and blubber, distending the coarse, hairless, 

 wrinkled hide into the shape and semblance 

 of a wool-sack. No wonder that the eyes 

 of the early Christian navigators opened 

 wide in amazement as the sinister head of 

 this brute amphibian rose unexpectedly from 

 the cold green Avaters of the north, and 

 then as suddenly disappeared beneath the 



the one gemis, arid if in turn alone repre- 

 sents but two species. Curiously, too, while 

 this animal is found in great numbers here 

 and there within the waters of the Arctic 

 Ocean, Baffin's Bay, and Behring Sea, no 

 one has ever seen or even heard of the 

 existence of a sea-horse in the equally frigid 

 Antarctic seas and Southern circumpolar 

 zone. The variation existing between the 

 walrus of Spitzbergen and that of Behring 

 Sea is a very sensible one, owing to the much 

 greater size and almost hairless skin of the 

 Alaskan adults ; this difference may be due 

 to the fact that our walrus has nothing to do 



ESijLl.MAlX HUNTERS CRUISING. 



waves with its peculiar snort and hog-like 

 grunt. However, soon after that, some 

 hardy sailor put a harpoon into a " sea- 

 horse," and its ivory teeth, and the oil 

 found under its tough skin, at once stimu- 

 lated a grand general hunting of this brute 

 by all the seamen of northern Europe. It 

 was a walrus-hunter who first beheld the 

 frozen coasts of Spitzbergen and Nova 

 Zembla, and it was a walrus-hunter also 

 who first passed from Asia to this continent 

 across the Straits of Behring. 



Though doubt exists even now among 

 scientific men as to the true character and 

 appearance of the walrus, vet there is but 



but to grow in compararive peace and seclu- 

 sion, while the annual raids made upon the 

 Spitzbergen branch of the family may tend to 

 dwarf it by inculcating fearful anticipation. 



From the peculiar, wicked-looking tusks 

 that hang down over the chin from the 

 massive upper jaw, one instinctively jumps 

 to the conclusion that the walrus must be a 

 terrible fighter — that these enonnous dental 

 weapons are used for tearing, cutting, and 

 striking in conflict among themselves and 

 with their enemies ; as a matter of fact, the 

 walrus is among the most peaceable and 

 inoffensive of animals, and these savage- 

 looking teeth are used almost exclusively in 



