314 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



Some of the whalers say that only the mothers care for the young and that the bulls nev(:r 

 defend the little ones from danger ; when the mother is shot the young walrus will immediately 

 go to another female. 



Captain Scainrnon states, on the authority of an experienced whaling master, that on one 

 occasion a female walrus " was captured 2 miles from the ship, and the young cub kept close to 

 the boats that were towing its dead mother to the vessel, and when arrived made every effort to 

 follow her as she was being hoisted on board. A rope with a bowline was easily thrown over it, 

 and the bereaved creature taken on deck, when it instantly mounted its mother's back and there 

 clung with mournful solicitude until forced by the sailors to again return to the sea; but even 

 then it remained in the vicinity of the ship, bemoaning the loss of its parent by uttering distressful 

 cries. 



" A male and a female with her cub are often seen together ; yet herds of old and young of 

 both sexes are met with, both in the water and upon the ice. When undisturbed they are quite 

 inoffensive, but if hotly pursued they make a fierce resistance. Their mode of attack is by hook- 

 ing their tusks over the gunwales of the boat, which may overturn it, or they strike a blow through 

 the planking, which has repeatedly been the means of staving and sinking it." * 



2. DEVELOPMENT OF THE FISHERY. 



It was not until twenty years after the whalers first entered the Arctic that they thought 

 of capturing the walrus, partly because whales were so plenty that they needed nothing else to 

 help make up a cargo and partly through a dread of these auimals, of whose ferocity the men 

 had read exaggerated accounts. For some years it was considered a bold thing for a vessel to 

 capture half a dozen walrus ; but as whales became scarce and men became better acquainted 

 with the walrus, it was a common thing to hear of vessels taking fifty, seventy, and even a hundred 

 barrels of oil. Although small quantities of oil were secured by various vessels, no great quantity- 

 was taken until the year 1860 or 1861, when the baik Oarib, of San Francisco, took 100 barrels. 

 In 1869 and 1870 some vessels took 500 barrels each, and according to Captain Scammou 50,000 

 barrels were taken from that time to 1874. It has been common since then for one vessel to take 

 from 1,000 to 1,500 barrels in a season. Large numbers of walrus have been taken during the last 

 few years, and they are rapidly decreasing ; a few years hence they will not be worth seeking. 



3. METHODS OF CAPTURE. 



In the first few years of the walrus fishery the harpoon and lance were the instruments used 

 in capturing them, but for ten years it has been customary for the whalers, and even the natives, 

 to use a rifle.t Great numbers have been shot at one time, which is easily done, since they always 

 congregate in large numbers; and often the number killed is only limited by the power to take 

 care of them, for a ship's company cannot manage more than two or three hundred at one time. 



An outfit for walrusing consists of a dingey, or small ship's boat, with a crew of three men, 

 the gunner and two seamen, and includes a rifle, a box containing ammunition, and a boat which 

 follows to assist in skinning the walrus, having as its equipment a small watch tackle, six gafl's, 

 six pikes, six sheath knives, three rippers, two steels, a file, a whetstone, ice hooks, spade, hand- 



* Marine Mammalia, p. 178. 



t Capt. L. C. Owen thinks Everett Smith was the first whaleman to shoot walrus ; this was in the season of 1869. 

 About forty were thus killed that year. 



