HABITS AND THE CHASE. 115 



tance. The boats landed a little way off, so as not to frighten 

 them, and the sixteen men, creeping along shore, got between 

 the sea and the bay full of Walruses before mentioned, and im- 

 mediately commenced stabbing the animals next them. The 

 Walrus, although so active and fierce in the water, is very un- 

 wieldy and helpless on shore, and those in front soon succumbed 

 to the lances of their assailants ; the passage to the shore soon 

 got so blocked up with the dead and dying that the unfortunate 

 wretches behind could not pass over, and were in a manner bar- 

 ricaded by a wall of carcasses. Considering that every thrust 

 of a lance Avas worth twenty dollars, the scene must have been 

 one of terrific excitement to men who had A r ery few or no dol- 

 lars at all; and my informant's eyes sparkled as he related it. 

 He said the Walruses were then at their mercy, and they slew, 

 and stabbed, and slaughtered, and butchered, and murdered 

 until most of their lances were rendered useless, and them- 

 selves w r ere drenched with blood and exhausted with fatigue. 

 They went on board their A r essels, ground their lances, and had 

 their dinners, and then returned to their sanguinary work; 

 nor did they cry 'Hold, enough! 7 until they had killed nine 

 hundred Walruses, and yet so fearless or so lethargic were the 

 animals, that many hundreds more remained sluggishly lying on 

 other parts of the island at no great distance. . . . When I 

 Aisited the island six years afterward, there still remained abun- 

 dant testimony to corroborate the entire truth of the story. 

 The smell of the island was perceptible at several miles' dis- 

 tance, and on landing we found the carcasses lying as I have 

 described them, and in one place two and three feet deep. The 

 skin and flesh of many remained tolerably entire, notwithstand- 

 ing the raA^ages of Bears, Foxes and Gulls. So many Wal- 

 ruses have been killed on this island at different times that a 

 ship might easily load Avith bones there. . . ."* The worst 

 feature of this wholesale slaughter was the fact that their small 

 vessels, already partly loaded, could carry away only a small 

 portion of the spoil. A subsequent attempt to reach the island 

 later in the season for the purpose of securing the rest failed, 

 OAviug to its being surrounded by impenetrable ice. 



Eespecting the parental affection displayed by the Walruses, 

 Mr. Lament relates the following : u I never in my life witnessed 

 anything more interesting and more affecting than the wonder- 

 ful maternal affection displayed by this poor Walrus. After she 



" Seasons with the Sea-horses, pp. 175-177. 



(( 



