Trichecid.=e. MAMMALIA. Trichecid.e. 
128 
quently imparting a very peculiar, if not hideous aspect 
(fig. 39). In the female there is no trace of this singular 
apparatus. The canine teeth are large, thick, rather 
sharply pointed, and curved upwards ; the molars being 
furnished with simple, conical, and irregularly con- 
stricted conical crowns. The Elephant-seal enjoys a 
wide geographical distribution in the southern hemi- 
sphere, being found on the coasts of Australia, Kergue- 
land’s Land, the Falklands, and other islands both of 
the South Pacific and Atlantic oceans. It is greatly 
valued on account of the large quantity of oil which it 
yields; and, although powerful, it is a comparatively 
harmless animal, and easily destroyed. Its skin is very 
tliick, and, from its durability when prepared, is much 
employed in making carriage harness. The habits of 
the Sea-elephant are somewhat peculiar, inasmuch as 
it frequents the mouths of rivers, resorting betimes to 
fresh-water swamps and inland lakes. The male is said 
to utter when attacked a strange, hoarse, gurgling, wild 
sound; the voice of the female having some resemblance 
to the bellowing of an ox. A sailor once lost his life 
from the violence of an enraged female, in whose pre- 
sence he had the cruel folly to skin her young one. 
The dam generally produces two cubs at a birth, the 
growth of which is so astonishingly rapid, that in eight 
days they have doubled their natal dimensions, '^■'he 
period of gestation is believed to be between nine nd 
ten months. 
Family II.— TEICHECID^. 
Externally, the members of this family, as originally 
established, have a general resemblance to the ordinary 
seals ; but in the form and arrangement of the teeth 
there are differences of the most marked kind. The 
cranium is also veiy unlike that of the typical Phocidse ; 
Fig. 40. 
but in certain of the aberrant genera, this variation is 
less conspicuous. We have shown this to be the case, 
especially, in the genus Ilalichoerus, which is even 
associated with the present family in the systematic 
classification of Dr. .1. E. Gray. On carefully examin- 
ing the skull of a walrus (fig. 40), the first thing that 
strikes one is the massive character of all the bones, 
more particularly those of the anterior part of the face. 
All the facial modifications here witnessed have refer- 
ence to the enormously developed tusks; and, conse- 
quently, it is in the superior maxillary bone that the 
more striking morphological changes have taken place. 
The extension upwards and downwards, as well as the 
great breadth of this osseous mass, has become neces- 
sary, in order to insure the reception and fixation of the 
base of this rootless and huge canine tooth — the socket, 
of course, being extremely capacious. This curious 
osteological change of form has also had the effect of 
producing an unusually broad muzzle, tilting up, as 
it were, the aperture of the nostrils. Scarcely less 
remarkable is the correlative effect produced by these 
huge canines on the shape of the lower jaw ; but here, 
instead of increasing the width, w'e find the anterior 
part of the bone much narrowed and compressed, so as 
to pass securely forward, between and beyond the not 
very widely separated tusks — an arrangement wdiich 
has likewise involved corresponding peculiarities in the 
dental formula of the adult animal. According to the 
investigations of Macgillivray, Lapp, Wiegman, and 
others, there are either ten or twelve incisors, four 
canines, and eighteen or twenty molars in the young 
animal ; out of these, two grinders, the lower pair of 
canines, and all the incisors are deciduous, their sockets 
at length becoming entirely obliterated. We have thus 
left behind in Uie full-grown animal only sixteen per- 
manent molars, besides the twm tusks developed from 
the upper jaw ; the former are depressed, obliquely 
truncated, and flat on the crowms; wdiile the tusks, 
which are directed dowmwards with a slight curving 
inwards, measure from fifteen to twenty or tw'enty-five 
inches in length, w'eighing between eight and ten pounds 
each ; they are also proportionately thick. The cranial 
cavity is small when compared wflth that of the typical 
Phocidae. 
THE WALRUS [Tricheclms Rosmarus), or Morse — 
Plate 13, fig. 42 — is the only representative of the 
present family, if we are content to adhere to the 
arrangement above given. It is a large, bulky animal, 
the body usually measuring from ten to fifteen feet in 
length, and, in the case of the males, as much some- 
times as twenty feet. The fur is of a deep brownish- 
black colour, becoming lighter as age advances. The 
head is comparatively small, terminating anteriorly in 
an abrupt snout, which is tumid at the sides and 
clothed with long and very stout whiskers. The lips 
are particularly thick, rvhile the nostrils are rounded 
and placed high up on the summit of the muzzle. The 
auditoiy apertures are placed well back, but there is no 
trace of an external auricle; the eyes are comparatively 
small. The limbs are short, terminating in broad 
pentadactylous paddles or fiijipers, baving strong 
interdigital webs. Sir Everard Home’s notion that 
they possessed the power of producing a vacuum to 
aid the action of climbing, is entirely erroneous. The 
Walrus is an inhabitant of the shores of the Arctic 
ocean, being especially abundant on the coasts of 
Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, and Behring’s Straits. 
These animals congregate together in herds, varying ii 
