III.] THE WALRUS AND SEAL. 125 



repeated in a more or less altered form even by Olaus Magnus, 

 whose representation of the walrus is shown by the woodcut on 

 page 123. 



The "t'' of August 1556, the year after the publication of the 

 v/ork of Olaus Magnus, a West European saw for the first time 

 some actual walruses, which had been killed by Russian hunters 

 at Vaygats Island. No description of the animal, however, 

 is given, but from that period all the members of the English 

 and Dutch north-east expeditions had opportunities of seeing 

 wah'uses in hundreds and thousands. It was now first that man 

 learned actually to know this remarkable animal which had 

 been decked out in so many fables. To this period belongs the 

 beautiful and natural delineation of the walrus which is given 

 above. 



A peculiarity of the walrus may be mentioned here. The 

 hide, especially in old males, is often full of wounds and scratches, 

 which appear to be caused partly by combats and scraping 

 against sharj) pieces of ice, partly by some severe disease of the 

 skin. Mr. H. W. Elliot has remarked this of the walrus in 

 Behring's Sea.^ The walrus is also troubled with lice, which 

 is not the case, so far as I know, with any kind of seal. 

 Masses of intestinal worms are found instead in the stomach 

 of the seal, while on the contrary none are found in that 

 of the walrus. 



With reference to the other animals that are hunted in the 

 Polar Sea I am compelled to be very brief, as I have scarcely 

 any observations to make regarding them which are not already 

 sufficiently known by numerous writings. 



There are three kinds .of seals on Novaya Zemlya. Storsaelen, 

 the bearded seal {PJioca harhata, Fabr.) occurs pretty generally 

 oven on the coasts of Spitzbergen, though never in large flocks. 

 The pursuit of this animal is the most important part of the 

 seal-fishing in these waters, and the bearded seal is still killed 

 yearly by thousands. Their value is reckoned in settling 

 accounts between owners and hunters at twenty to twenty-five 

 Scandinavian crowns (say 22s. to 27s. Qd.). 



G-rocnlanch or Jan-Mayen-saekn, the Greenland seal {Phoca 

 Grocnlandica Miiller), which at Jan Mayen gives occasion to so 

 profitable a fishing, also is of general occurrence among the 

 drift-ice in the Murman and Kara seas. 



Snadden, the rough or bristled seal {Phoca Mspida, Erxl.) is also 

 common on the coast. These animals in particular are seen to 

 lie, each at its hole, on the ice of fjords, which has not been 

 broken up. It also many times follows with curiosity in the 



1 A Report upon the Condition of Affairs in the Territory of Alaska. 

 Washington, 1875, p. IfiO. 



