III.] 



WALRUS-HUNTING. 



119 



himself as a solitary individual, but otherwise animals of the 

 same age and sex keep together in large herds. The young 

 walrus long follows its mother, and is protected by her with 

 evident fondness and very conspicuous maternal affection. Her 

 first care, when she is pursued, is accordingly to save her young 

 even at the sacrifice of her own life. A female walrus with 

 young is nearly always lost, if they be discovered from a hunting 

 boat. However eagerly she may try by blows and cuffs to get 

 her young under water or lead her pursuers astray by diving 



WALUCS TUSKS. 



A. Tusk of male, outside, b. Tusk of male, inside. 

 One-tenth of natural size. 



c. Tusks of female. 



with it under her forepaw, she is generally overtaken and killed. 

 Such a hunt is truly grim, but the walrus-hunter knows no 

 mercy in following his occupation. The walrus, especially the 

 old solitary male, sleeps and rests during autumn, when the 

 drift-ice has disappeared, also in the water, with his head now 

 above the surface, now under it, and with his lungs so strongly 

 inflated that the body is kept floating, with part of the back 

 projecting out of the water. The latter way of sleeping is 

 mdeed possible only for so long at once as the animal can keep 



