The Hijlory 5/ ANIMALS, 555 
The whole body is covered with a fhort fur, of a mixed greyifh and yellowilh co¬ 
lour : it is often fpotted with a darker colour toward the back, and is always paler on 
the bread; and belly than elfewhere: the tongue is large, like that of a calf, but it is 
bifid, or divided into two parts at the end : the creature is contrived for living a great 
part of it’s time under water, and the foramen ovale of the heart is to this purpofe 
continued open in it, as it is in foetus’s, which are to live without the affiftance of 
breathing. 
It is very frequent about the fea-coafts of many parts of Europe. We have it in 
Cornwal, and fome other places; they come out of the fea to deep, and the people 
take this occafion of attacking them. They will throw ftones from about them, by the 
affiftance of their hinder legs, to a great diftance, and with a dangerous violence. All 
the writers on quadrupeds have defcribed this fpecies $ they call it Phoca and Vitulus 
marinus$ we, the Sea-calf. 
Phoca dentibus caninis exertis 
The Phoca , with the canine teeth exerted\ 
%\h ^taints. 
This is a much more lingular and extraordinary creature than the former, and is 
much larger; it grows to the lize of the largeft ox: the head is very large, and is 
thick, Ihort, and of an almoft rounded figure: the eyes are very large and prominent^ 
there are no ears, but only an aperture on each fide of the head, of an oblong form 8 
and not very large : the nofe is obtufe; the noftrils are large, and the creature con¬ 
tracts and dilates them at pleafure: the mouth is very large, and the upper part of it 
is furnilhed with fome-very large, thick, and cartilaginous whifkers: the tongue is 
Ihort; the canine teeth of the upper jaw are of an enormous length and fize, and they 
hang downwards and forwards toward the breaft; the creature ufes thefe ftrange wea¬ 
pons to climb upon the ice, and to hang itfelf to the rocks, in it’s getting on fhore to 
fieep. 
The neck is Ihort and robuft j the body is corpulent to a great degree : the fore¬ 
legs are buried a great way under the fkin of the body; the hinder legs are connected 
together, and they form a kind of tail, like that of a filh; there is no tail. 
The Ikin is thick and firm, and is covered with Ihort, and not very thick-fet, hairs $ 
they are of a grey colour, and tolerably firm. 
This ftrange animal is a native of the Northern Seasj it is frequent about Green¬ 
land, and in other places where there are whale-filheries, and fometimes comes into 
warmer climates. Moft of the writers on animals have defcribed it. They call it 
the Rofmarus, the Wallrofs or Walrus, and the Morfe; fome, but very improperly, 
the Sea-horfe. We ufe the teeth in the manner of ivory. 
M E L E S. 
f |' ' H E fore-teeth of the Meles are all obtufe, and thofe of the upper jaw are 
ftriated. There is alfo, in this genus, always a bag of fecreted matter, fitua- 
ted near the anus. 
Meles unguibus ant ids longijftmis. 
The Meles , with the anterior claws very long. 
SZ\)t 26at>ger. 
This is a very fingular animal, and is not without it’s beauty ; it is of the fize of a 
fmall dog : the body is thick and fhort; the neck is extreamly fhort: the fur, with 
which it is covered, is compoied of hairs fo rigid and thick, that they have the ap¬ 
pearance of hogs briftles: thofe on the back, which are the largeft and faireft, are 
yellow toward their bafe, of a blackifli-brown in the middle, and of a deeper or 
ftronger yellow at the tips, fo that the colour of the creature is an odd mixture of deep 
brown 
