THE SEA-LION 297 



that later figures, until quite recent times, were made to 

 depict the animal with its hind limbs turned backwards 

 like those of a seal. 



The walruses are, according to Allen, always more or 

 less gregarious, in larger or smaller companies according 

 to their abundance. They seem to delight in huddling 

 together on the ice-floes, or on shore, to which places 

 they resort to bask in the sun. They are rarely seen 

 far out in the open sea, and are restricted in their 

 wanderings to the neighbourhood of shores, or large 

 masses of floating ice. Though they often move from 

 one feeding-ground to another, they do not truly migrate. 

 Usually, but one young one is born at a time, never 

 more than two ; and this takes place between April and 

 June. The females (with their young, which they have 

 been said to suckle for two years) seem to consort to- 

 gether. Of thirty full-grown walruses killed in Henlopen 

 Straits, in the month of July, not one was found to 

 be a male. On some other occasions, however, males, 

 females, and young have been found together. Their 

 strong affection for their young, and their sympathy for 

 each other in times of danger, have been repeatedly 

 noticed. 



Mr. Lamont, in his " Seasons with the Sea-horses," 

 says : " I never witnessed anything more interesting and 

 more affecting than the wonderful maternal affection of 

 the walrus. I perceived that she held a very young calf 

 under her right arm, as she saw that Christian wanted to 

 harpoon it ; but whenever he poised the weapon to 

 throw, the old cow seemed to watch the direction of it, 

 and interposed her own body, and she seemed to receive 

 with pleasure several harpoons which were intended for 

 the young one." 



When one individual has been wounded, the whole 



