THE MAGDALENE ISLANDS — PATTERSON. 39 



them into strips for traces and other purposes. The flesh is 

 tough, hard and greasy, and not much relished even by the 

 Eskimos. They will attack a small boat merely through wanton- 

 ness ; and as they generally attempt to stave it are extremely 

 dangerous. Their blazing eyes and their tusks give them a for- 

 midable appearance, l)ut unless wounded or one of their number 

 be killed, they do not seem ever to intend hurting the men. 

 Aljout forty years ago,* a crew of Acadian Frenchmen, in a 

 schooner from Prince Edward Island, caught and killed a young- 

 walrus in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. A little time after, as one 

 of the men was skinning- it in the boat along- side the vessel, 

 an old walrus rose, and got hold of the man between the tusks 

 and forefins, or flippers, and plunged down under water with him, 

 and afterward showed itself three or four times with the unfor- 

 tunate man in the same position before it disappeared altogether." 



Mr. McGregor says that the last incident was well known, and 

 was several times related to him l*}^ a brother of the unfortunate 

 man, who was on board the schooner at the time. I had more 

 than once read the story, and when I mentioned it at my board- 

 ing-house on the Magdalene Islands, mine host at once replied, 

 " O yes, it 's quite true ; the man was my grandfather's brother. 

 He had killed the calf, and she singled him out from the rest of 

 the crew." 



There was thus some danger in pursuing them in the open sea. 

 But they were in the habit of coming in herds upon the beach 

 or of passing over into the shallow lagoons inside. Their order 

 of march was in single file, and the}'^ were said at times to enter 

 some distance into the woods. Even yet a place is known as the 

 Sea-cow's (vache cie marine) Path. The first effort of the hunters 

 was to get them on shore, and then to urge them forward till 

 they got them a sufiicient distance from the water. It is said 

 that for this purpose they would get behind them on a dark 

 night and give the hindmost a prod with a sliarp pole. This 

 urged him forward, l:)ut, it is said, led him to give his immediate 

 predecessor a similar stimulus, who passed the compliment to the 



* Written about 1834. 



