1778 THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 419 



These, on the approach of the boat, would wake those 

 next to them, and the alarm being thus gradually 

 communicated, the whole herd would be awake pre- 

 sently. But they were seldom in a hurry to get 

 away, till after they had been once fired at. Then 

 they would tumble one over the other into the sea, 

 in the utmost confusion. And if we did not, at the 

 first discharge, kill those we fired at, we generally 

 lost them, though mortally wounded. They did not 

 appear to us to be that dangerous animal some 

 authors have described, not even when attacked. 

 They are rather more so to appearance than in 

 reality. Vast numbers of them would follow, and 

 come close up to the boats ; but the flash of a musket 

 in the pan, or even the bare pointing of one at them, 

 would send them down in an instant. The female 

 will defend the young one to the very last, and at the 

 expence of her own life, whether in the water or upon 

 the ice. Nor will the young one quit the dam, 

 though she be dead, so that, if you kill one, you are 

 sure of the other. The dam, when in the water, holds 

 the young one between her fore-fins. 



Mr. Pennant, in his Synopsis Quadr. y p. 335*, has 

 given a very good description of this animal, under 

 the name of Arctic Walrus ; but I have no where 

 seen a good drawing of one. Why they should be 

 called sea-horses, is hard to say, unless the word be 

 a corruption of the Russian name, Morse ; for they 

 have not the least resemblance of a horse. This is, 

 without doubt, the same animal that is found in the 

 Gulph of St. Lawrence, and there called sea-cow. It 

 is certainly more like a cow than a horse, but this 

 likeness consists in nothing but the snout. In short, 

 it is an animal like a seal, but incomparably larger. 



* Mr. Pennant, since Captain Cook wrote this, has described 

 this animal in a new work, which he calls Arctic Zoology, now 

 ready for publication. We have been favoured with his obliging 

 communications on this, and other particulars ; and, therefore, 

 refer the reader to the Arctic Zoology , N. 72. 



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