the figure of a seal; its frame being of the same description, though differently moulded.  It was considerably more bulky in proportion to its length, its chest and back more elevated, its fore flippers thicker and more rounded, and its hind quarters less tapering to the tail.  Altogether, it impressed upon the mind a strong idea of a formidable monster, in spite of its relatively diminutive head; for its fearful tusks, and thick-set projecting whiskers, gave its visage a most truculent expression; and with its grotesquely fashioned ponderous carcass, provided with fin feet of strange formation, seemed to mark it as a personification of one of the fabulous conceptions of mythology.

The morse is said to roar or bellow loudly, but the animal we slew made no outcry, for the half sneezing, half snorting sounds it uttered I conceive to have been the consequence of its hasty dive, which had apparently prevented its taking in sufficient breath, and occasioned it to admit some water down its windpipe.  Nevertheless, the immense size of its larynx or thropple, which William dissected out and brought with him to England, seems to indicate vast powers of voice in this animal; but I am at a loss to conjecture why it should be provided either with this unusual capability of “blaring,” or with the exceedingly strong whiskers that arm its muzzle, organs which, though nominally of little or no importance except in Bond-street, must really be of consequence to the walrus, since their roots are imbedded in two thick cushions of tough blubbery substance, so large as to give a marked character to the countenance, and evidently pointing out the growth and nourishment of these whiskers as a matter of some consideration in the eye of nature.

* * * * *

SEAL’S WEDDING.

Just as we had made fast to a floe, to take in water from a bright blue pool which slept on its hollow surface, I was called upon deck to witness “a seal’s wedding.”  This ceremony was performed in a manner which, however nuptial it may have appeared to seamen, was not quite in accordance with my ideas of the hymeneal contract.  A “seal’s wedding” seems to be a seal’s dance, or a combination of gambols, which these animals act together, while swimming rapidly forward in company, leaping above the surface of the water, rolling, tumbling, going “tail up” after each other, and enacting a thousand wild freaks, as unexpected from such grave-looking and clumsy-built harlequins as can be imagined.  Yet why should not the solemn visaged, double-chinned phoca partake of one of the most universal habits of animal life—­the love of frolic?—­a desire which is equally as diffused throughout the living creation as the inclination for fighting.  A shoal or “school” of beautiful unicorns also swam past our vessel at this time; they were particularly large, and, from the numerous horns projected from the water, there must have been many males amongst