Volume 23, Plate I / Mammalia (Mammals)

Walrus, or Sea-Horse

Trichechus

Largest of the northern marine quadrupeds, the Walrus or Sea-Horse is a bulky beast twelve to fifteen feet long, clad in thick hide and oily fat, its great tusks projecting from sockets that shape the muzzle, with small brilliant eyes, no external ears and short paw-like limbs. Highly social and peaceful, it herds in hundreds upon ice and shore, swims swiftly, feeds on shell-fish and small fish, and inhabits the Arctic seas about Spitzbergen and Greenland.