* * * * *


ARCTIC ADVENTURES.

_From the Tales of a Voyager. Second Series._


THE MORSE, OR SEA HORSE.


After a long and tedious interval of misty, dripping weather, we obtained
sufficient sun at noon, to find ourselves in latitude 72.19; but a
discovery that afforded me most pleasure was the appearance of a sea-horse,
lying at some distance from us, on an elevated piece of ice. This animal
was first perceived by the captain, from the mast-head, whence he
immediately descended, and ordered a boat to be lowered, inviting William
and myself to join him in trying to make the monster our prey. When we drew
near to its station, it raised its head and displayed one formidable tusk,
projecting downwards from its upper jaw towards its breast, whilst part of
another, broken by some accident or encounter, offered a less menacing
weapon to our view. The beast itself was about the size of a large bullock,
and lay upon the ice like a huge mass of animated matter, which seemed to
possess no means of locomotion. Its head was disproportionably small to the
size of its body, judged according to our usual ideas of the relative
difference of bulk between these parts, while its whiskers were evidently
larger and stronger than those of any other animal. These singularities
gave it a grotesque appearance, not lessened by an approximation in its
square short countenance to a caricatured resemblance of the human face,