ANIMALS RECENTLY EXTINCT. 61 l J 



though not as yet verging on extinction, the ranks of both species have 

 been sadly decimated, and the animals have been completely extirpated 

 in localities where they once abounded. In Europe the walrus has oc- 

 casionally been met with on the coast of Scotland, and was formerly 

 plentiful on many of the islands adjacent to the northern coast of the 

 continent, and even along the continent itself, reaching eastward to the 

 Lena River, iu Asia. In America the Atlantic wabus formerly ranged 

 from Nova Scotia northward to about 80 degrees, being abundant in the 

 Gulf of St Lawrence and occurring on Sable Island and the eastern coast 

 of Newfoundland. The walrus was kuown in Europe as early as 870 to 

 890, and appears to have been an object of the chase on the coast of 

 Finmark in 080, while by 1000 it was the object of a regular fishery by 

 the English and others. In the early part of 1600 Cherie, or Bear Island, 

 lying about 280 miles to the northward of North Cape, Norway, was 

 the scene of operation, and many a ship load — ships were small in those 

 days it should be remembered — of oil and ivory was obtained at this 

 locality. The walruses were accustomed to haul out on shore, and by 

 getting between them and the water immense numbers were killed in 

 a short time, the bodies of those first slain being used as a barrier to 

 obstruct the retreat of the survivors. On one occasion six or seven hun- 

 dred were killed in six hours, and on another nine hundred to a thousand 

 in less than seven hours. Naturally this abundance did not long con- 

 tinue, and in eight years the animals had become scarce and shy, while 

 soon after they were completely extirpated iu this locality. Farther 

 and farther to the north, to Spitsbergen and the shores of Greenland, 

 the hunters pursued the rapidly-diminishing herds of walruses, until 

 the pursuit in itself became no longer profitable, and, as at present, the 

 walrus fishery was carried on merely as an adjunct to the whale fishery. 

 So early as 1534 Oartier mentions meeting with walruses in the vicinity 

 of the Magdalen Islands, and it probably was not long before a regular 

 ''fishery" for these animals was established on the Island of liamea, 

 very probably one of the Magdalen group. In 1581 the French ship 

 Bonaventure, at Pile Blance "slewe and killed to the number of fiiteene 

 hundred Morses or Sea Oxen, accounting small and great," and in 1503 

 the ship Marigold, in company with another vessel, sailed from Falmouth 

 for the express purpose of hunting the walrus. The Marigol 77 seems to 

 have been well equipped, foramong the crew of thirty were three coopers 

 and two butchers, but owing to delay on the part of her consort the sea 

 son was lost. An English company located on Sable Island, and at 

 about the same time a French company was established at Miscou, Bay 

 Chaleur. The English company soon came to grief, but its French rival 

 did a flourishing business as long as the walruses lasted, killing so many 

 that years alter the company ami its headquarters of New Kochelle 

 had passed away, the bones of the slaughtered animals remained in 

 such quantities as to form artificial beaches. In those days walrus 

 ivory seems to have been in fashion, for a note in Ilakluyt tells us that 



