458 A V O Y A G E T O 



»778. They lie, in herds of many hundreds, upon the ice 



Auguft 



huddhng one over the other hke fwine; and roar or bray 

 very loud ; fb that, in the night, or in foggy weather, they 

 gave us notice of the vicinity of the ice, before we could fee 

 it. We never found the v/hole herd afleep •, fome being al- 

 ways upon the watch. Thefe, on the approach of the boat, 

 would wake ihofe next to them j and the alarm being thus 

 gradually communicated, the whole herd would be awake 

 prefently. But they were feldom in a hurry to get away, till 

 after they had been once fired at. Then they would tumble 

 one over the other, into the fea, in the utmoft confufion. 

 And, if we did not, at the firll difcharge, kill thofe we fired 

 at, we generally loft them, though mortally wounded- 

 They did not appear to us to be that dangerous animal fome 

 authors have delcribcd; not even when attacked. They 

 are rather more fo, to appearance, than in reality. Vaft 

 numbers of them would follow, and come clofe up to the 

 boats. But the flafli of a mufquet in the pan, or even the 

 bare pointing of one at them, would fend them down in an- 

 inftanr. The female will defend the young one to the very 

 lad, and at the expence of her own life, whether in the wa- 

 ter, or upon the ice. Nor will the young one quit the dam, 

 though file be dead ; fo that, if you kill one, you are fure of 

 the other. The dam, when in the water, holds the young, 

 oiie beiween her fore-fins. 



Mr. Pennant, in his Synopfts ^ladr. p. 355*, has given a 

 very good deicnption of this animal under the name pf 

 Arvlic Walrus ; but I have no where feen a good drawing 



• Mr. Pennant, fince Captain Cook wrote this, has defcribed this animal in a new 

 ■work, wliich he culls Ariik Zoology, now ready for publication. We have been fa- 

 voured witli his obliging coinmuniciUions on this, and other particulars j and, there- 

 fore, refer the reader to the Arclk Zoology, N" 7 2. 



Gf 



