ANIMAL LIFE IN THE ARCTIC REGION 223 



An animal not unlike the seal in many ways is the walrus. 

 So far as looks are concerned, scarcely a more uninviting fellow 

 can be conceived than this animal, which the Greenlanders and 

 Eskimos call "Awuk," from its peculiar guttural cry. 



This ungainly creature, though so unsightly in features, is in 

 reality quiet and inoffensive, unless attacked or roused in love- 

 time, when woe betide those who measure his strength, especially 

 if he reach his native watery element. Some travelers represent 

 him as distrustful, ferocious and suspicious. They are very seldom 

 met with singly, but often found in herds from a dozen to several 

 hundreds, as Captain Cook, the great explorer, long ago observed. 

 They crowd up from the water on to the rocks or ice one after the 

 other, grunting and bellowing. The first arrived is no sooner 

 composed in sleeping trim, than a second comes prodding and 

 poking with its blunt tusks, forcing room for itself, while the 

 first is urged farther from the water; the second in turn is simi- 

 larly treated by the third; and so on, until numbers will lie packed 

 close, heads and tails resting against and on each other, in the 

 most convenient and friendly manner possible. There they sleep 

 and snore to their hearts' content, but nevertheless keep senti- 

 nels on guard in a singular fashion. Some one would seem to 

 disturb another; then this fellow would raise his head listessly, 

 give a grunt and a poke to his nearest companion, who would rouse 

 up a few minutes, also grunt, and pass the watchword to his 

 neighbor, and so on through the herd, this disturbance always keep- 

 ing some few on the alert. Danger announced, they scuttle pell- 

 mell and topsy-turvy into the water. 



However, the walrus is as decidedly lord and ruler of the 

 Polar waters as the bear is of the Polar lands. Its head has not 

 the regular oval of the seal; but, on the contrary, the skull slants 

 abruptly to the eyes, while the upper portion of the face has quite 

 a square form. The muzzle is less protruding than the seal's, while 

 the cheek and lips are completely concealed by the heavy quill-like 



