WALRUS; a genus of aquatic animals belonging to the class of mammalia, and order of bruta. This genus has no fore-teeth, when full grown: has two great tusks in the upper jaw, which point downwards; has grinders on each side in both jaws, which are composed of furrowed bones. The body is oblong; the lips are doubled; and the hind legs are stretched backwards, and, as it were, bound together, forming a kind of tail fitted for swimming. There are three species; the rosmarus, dugon, and manatus.

1. The rosmarus, morse, or sea-horse, has a round head; small mouth; very thick lips, covered above and below with pellucid bristles as thick as a straw; small fiery eyes; two small orifices instead of ears; short neck; body thick in the middle, tapering towards the tail; skin thick, wrinkled, with short brownish hairs thinly dispersed; legs short, five toes on each, all connected by webs, and small nails on each: the hind feet are very broad; each leg loosely articulated; the hind legs generally extended on a line with the body: the tail is very short; penis long: length of the animal from nose to tail sometimes 18 feet, and 10 or 12 round in the thickest part: the teeth have been sometimes found of the weight of 32 lb. each. Teeth of this size are only found on the coast of the Icy Sea, where the animals are seldom molested, and have time to attain their full growth. See Plate DX, fig. 1.

They inhabit the coast of Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, Hudson's Bay, and the gulf of St Lawrence; and the Icy Sea, as far as Cape Tschuktschi. They are gregarious; in some places appearing in herds of hundreds. They are shy animals, and avoid places which are much haunted by mankind; but are very fierce. If wounded in the water, they attempt to sink the boat, either by rising under it, or by striking their great teeth into the sides; they roar very loud, and will follow the boat till it gets out of sight. Numbers of them are often seen sleeping on an island of ice; if awaked, they fling themselves with great impetuosity into Trichecus, the sea; at which time it is dangerous to approach the ice, lest they should tumble into the boat and overturn it. They do not go upon the land till the coast is clear of ice. At particular times they land in amazing numbers; the moment the first gets on shore, so as to lie dry, it will not stir till another comes and forces it forward by beating it with its great teeth; this is served in the same manner by the next; and so in succession till the whole is landed; continuing tumbling over one another, and forcing the foremost, for the sake of quiet, to remove farther up.

They are killed for the sake of their oil, one walrus producing about half a tun. The knowledge of this chace is of great antiquity; Ochther the Norwegian, about the year 890, made a report of it to king Alfred, having, as he says, made the voyage beyond Norway, for the more commoditie of fishing of horse-whales, which have in their teeth bones of great price and excellency, whereof he brought some at his return unto the king. In fact, it was in the northern world, in early times, the substitute for ivory, being very white and very hard. Their skins, Ochther says, were good to cut into cables. M. de Buffon says, he has seen braces for coaches made of the skin, which were both strong and elastic.

They bring one, or at most two, young at a time; they feed on sea herbs and fish; also on shells, which they dig out of the sand with their teeth: they are said also to make use of their teeth to ascend rocks or pieces of ice, fattening them to the cracks, and drawing their bodies up by that means. Besides mankind, they seem to have no other enemy than the white bear, with whom they have terrible combats; but generally come off victorious, by means of their great teeth.

In Captain Cook's Voyages we have the following affecting account of their parental attachment to their young. "On the approach of the boats towards the ice, they took their young ones under their fins, and attempted to escape with them into the sea. Some, whose cubs were killed or wounded, and left floating upon the surface of the water, rose again, and carried them down, sometimes just as our men were on the point of taking them into the boat; and could be traced bearing them to a considerable distance through the water, which was stained with their blood. They were afterwards observed bringing them, at intervals, above the surface, as if for air; and again plunging under it, with a horrid bellowing. The female, in particular, whose young one had been killed, and taken into the boat, became so furious, that she even struck her two tusks through the bottom of the cutter."

2. The dugon, or Indian walrus, is distinguished by the tusks which extend out of the mouth from the upper jaw being placed near each other. It inhabits the seas lying between the Cape of Good Hope and the Philippine islands. This animal, so far as can be known, resembles the morse very much: the head is, however, more lengthened and narrower; the nostrils are large, and placed higher; like the former species, there are no tusks in the under jaw, but those in the upper jaw, as has been already observed, are placed near each other, bent outwards, and resemble cutting teeth, only that they are near six inches long; there are four grinders on each side in the upper jaw, and three in the lower; these last are distant from the tusks, and broader than those of the morse: the female has two teats on the breast: the chin has a bristly beard; the ears are short; the feet broad; and the legs so short that the belly trails on the ground. When full grown, the animal is six ells in length; the male being rather larger than the female, which has breasts like a woman: It feeds on a green sea moss or weed, which grows near the shore. The figure, manners, and Tricheus and history, of this animal, are very imperfectly known; but we are informed that its flesh eats like beef.

3. Manatus, fish-tailed walrus, or sea-cow, has no tusks, and no hind feet. Of this species there are two varieties; the australis or lamantin, and the borealis or whale-tailed manati. The lamantin inhabits the African and American seas, particularly near the mouths of rivers, which they frequently enter, seldom going far from the shore. The lamantin varies in size from eight to seventeen feet long, is six or seven in circumference, and from 500 to 800 pounds weight: the skin is of a dark or black ash colour; there are nine square shaped grinders on each side in each jaw, which are covered with a glairy crust of enamel; the back bone has 50 joints or vertebrae: it is a thick clumsy animal, having no properly distinct neck, as the body continues almost of an equal thickness to the head. The female has two teats placed near the arm-pits. This animal never comes on shore, but frequents the mouths of large rivers, browsing on the grass which grows close to the water. There seems to be two varieties, differing considerably in size. The larger frequents the seas near the mouths of large rivers; and the smaller is found higher up the same rivers, and in inland fresh water lakes, but never goes to the sea.

We are told that this animal is often tamed by the native inhabitants of America, and that it delights in music; hence, according to some authors, it is probably the dolphinus or dolphin of the ancients: and some believe, that what has been written concerning mermaids and sirens must be referred to this animal. It has a voracious appetite, and is perpetually eating: it is monogamous, or lives in families of one male, one female, a half grown and a very small young one; copulates in the spring, the female at first lying in various playful circles, and then throwing herself on her back to receive the male: When pasturing on the aquatic plants, the back is often above water; and, as the skin is full of a species of louse, numbers of sea fowls perch on them, to pick out the insects. They bellow like bulls: their sight is very weak, but their hearing extremely acute; the fore-feet are palmated and fin-shaped, almost like those of a sea-turtle; and instead of hind-feet they have a horizontal tail; they have no external ears; the nostrils are distinct, and at a distance from each other; the females have two teats about the breast; the upper lip is full of sharp, prickly, rigid bristles. This animal has great affinity to the whale and seal tribes. The flesh is very good eating.

The whale-tailed manati inhabits the north-west coast of America, the north-east of Asia, and the islands which lie between these two coasts. This animal very often enters the mouths of the rivers; is sometimes 23 feet long, and weighs 8000 pounds; the skin, while wet, is of a brown colour, but becomes black when dry. Instead of grinders, this species has, on each side of each jaw, a large rugged bone. The back-bone has 60 vertebrae or joints; the body is very clumsy, and much deformed; its circumference at the shoulders is 12 feet, at the belly 25, and near the tail only four; the neck is near seven feet round, and the head only 34 inches.

They live perpetually in the water, and frequent the edges of the shores; and in calm weather swim in droves near the mouths of rivers: in the time of flood they come so near the land, that a person may stroke them with his hand: if hurt, they swim out to sea; but presently return again. The females oblige the young to swim before them, while the other old ones surround, and as it were guard them on all sides. The affection between the male and female is very great: for if she is attacked, he will defend her to the utmost; and if she is killed, will follow her corpse to the very shore, and swim for some days near the place it has been landed at. They copulate in the evening, in the same manner as the human kind, especially in calm weather, towards the evening. The female swims gently about; the male pursues; till, tired with wantoning, she flings herself on her back, and admits his embraces. Steller thinks they go with young about a year; it is certain that they bring but one young at a time, which they suckle by two teats placed between the breast. They are vastly voracious and gluttonous; and feed not only on the fuci that grow in the sea, but such as are flung on the edges of the shore. When they are filled, they fall asleep on their backs. During their meals, they are so intent on their food, that any one may go among them and choose which he likes best. Peter Martyr gives an instance of one that lived in a lake of Hispaniola for 25 years, and was so tame as to come to the edge of the shore on being called; and would even perform the part of a ferry, and carry several people at a time on its back to the opposite shore.—Their back and their sides are generally above water.

They continue in the Kamtchatkan and American seas the whole year; but in winter are very lean, so that you may count their ribs. They are taken by harpoons fastened to a strong cord; and after they are struck, it requires the united force of 30 men to draw them on shore. Sometimes when they are transfixed, they will lay hold of the rocks with their paws, and stick so fast as to leave the skin behind before they can be forced off. When a manati is struck, its companions swim to its assistance; some will attempt to overturn the boat by getting under it; others will pull down the rope, in order to break it; and others will strike at the harpoons with their tails, with a view of getting it out, in which they often succeed. They have not any voice; but make a noise by hard breathing like the snorting of a horse.

The skin is very thick, black, and full of inequalities, like the bark of oak; and so hard as scarce to be cut with an axe, and has no hair on it; beneath the hair is a thick blubber, which tastes like oil of almonds. The flesh is coarser than beef, and will not soon putrefy. The young ones taste like veal. The skin is used for shoes, and for covering the sides of boats.