106 BRITISH AMERICA.

the finding out of a squirrel’s store by no means an

invaluable discovery. W'easels and ermines are natives of America, as

well as of Europe, but they are not numerous.

A great variety of mice are met with.

Bats, but of an inferior size, are common during summer.

The walrus (frequently, but unmeaningly, called sea—horse and sea-cow) formerly resorted to the shores of the Gulf of St Lawrence, but is now rarely seen except on the northern coast of Labrador and

Hudson’s Bay; occasionally it is yet seen at the Magdalen Islands, and near the Straits of Belle Isle.

From all the information to be had, they are fond of being in herds, and their affection for each other is very apparent. The form of the body, and of theg head, with the exception of the nose being broaden; and having two tusks from fifteen inches to two feet::’. long in the upper jaw, is not very unlike that of the ‘ seal. A full-grown walrus Will weigh at least 4000 7 lbs. The skins are valuable, being about an inch in thickness, astonishingly tough, and the Acadian French used to cut them into strips for traces and other purposes. The tusks are excellent ivory. The flesh is hard, tough, and greasy, and not much relished even by the Esquimaux. They are said to feed on shellfish and marine plants. They will attack a small boat, merely through wantonness ; and, as they gene- rally attempt to stave it, are extremely dangerous. Their blazing eyes, and their tusks, give “them a formidable appearance ; but, unless wounded, or any