156 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



Methods of landing: Clumsy efforts. — In landing and climbing 

 over the low, rocky shores at Morserovia/ this animal is fairly as 

 chimsy and almost as indolent as the sloth. A herd crowds up from 

 the water, one after the other, in the most ungainly manner, accom- 

 panying tlieir movements with low grunts and bellowings; the first 

 one up from the sea no sooner gets composed upon the rocks for sleep 

 than the second one comes along, prodding and poking with its blunted 

 tusks, demanding room also, and causes tlie first to change its position 

 to another location still farther off and up from the water, a few feet 

 beyond; then the second is in turn treated in the same way by a third, 

 and so on until hundreds will be slowly packed together on the shore, 

 as tliickly as tliey can lie, never far back from the surf, however, i)il- 

 lowing their heads upon the bodies of one another, and not acting at 

 all quarrelsome toward each other. Occasionally, in tlieir lazy, 

 phlegmatic adjusting and crowding, the posteriors of some old bull 

 will be lifted up, and remain elevated in the air, while the passive 

 owner sleeps with its head, perhaps, beneath the pudgy form of its 

 neighbor. 



Use of tusks. — A great deal has been written in regard to the 

 manner in which the walrus uses his enormous canines; many authors 

 have it tliat tliey are employed by Bosmarus as landing hooks, so 

 that by sticlving them into the icy floes, or inserting them between rocky 

 interstices or inequalities, the clumsy brute aids his hauling out from 

 the sea. I looked here at Walrus Island very closely for such mani- 



ful and half dead, he is made a rich prey, especially for his teeth, that are very 

 pretious amongst the Sci/tJiians, the Muscovites, Bussiaus and Tartars (as ivory 

 amongst the Indians) by reason of its hardness, whiteness and ponderousnesse." 



In spite of the many remarkable and well authenticated stories printed as to the 

 ferocity of the Atlantic walrus when hunted, it can be safely said that no boat has 

 ever been assailed by the Alaskan species, which is as large if not larger, and in 

 ever}'- respect quite as able bodied. The Eskimo capture them without danger or 

 difficulty — mere child's play or woman's work — spearing and lancing. By spear- 

 ing, a line of walrus hide is made fast to the plethoric body of Hosmarns, and 

 when it has expended its surplus vitality by towing the natives a few miles in a 

 mad frenzied burst of swimming, the bidarrah is quietly drawn up to its ]>uffing 

 form, close enough to permit the coup of an ivory-headed lance, then towed to the 

 beach at high water. When the ebb is well out the huge carcass is skinned by its 

 dusky butchers, who cut it up into large square chunks of flesh and blubber, which 

 are deposited in the little " Dutch-oven " caches of each family that are waiting 

 for its reception. 



Dressing the walrus hides is the only serious hard labor which the Alaskan Iiinuit 

 subjects himself to. He can not lay it entirely upon the women, as do the Sioux 

 when tliey spread buffalo bodies all over the plains. It is too much for female 

 strength alone, and so the men bear a hand right lustily in the business. It takes 

 from four to six stout natives when a green walrus hide is removed to carry it to 

 the sweating hole, where it is speedily unhaired. Then stretched alternately upon 

 air frames and pinned over the earth, it is gradually scraped down to the requisite 

 thinness for use in covering the bidarrah skeletons, etc. 



There are probably six or seven thousand human beingsin Alaska who live alone 

 by virtue of the existence of Rosmarus, and every year when the season opens 

 they gather together by settlements, as they are contiguous, and discuss the wal- 

 rus chances for the coming year as earnestly and as wisely as our farmers do, for 

 instance, regarding the prospects for corn and potatoes. But the Eskimo hunter 

 is a sadly improvident mortal, though he is not wasteful of morse life; while we 

 are provident and yet wasteful of our resources. 



If the north pole is ever reached by our people, they will do so only when they 

 can eat walrus meat and get plenty of it. At least, that is my belief, and know- 

 ing now what the diet is, I think the journey to the hyperborean ultima is a long 

 one, though there is plenty of meat and many men who want to try it. 



'Morserovia, the Russian name for Walrus Island; the natives also call Otter 

 Island by the Russian title of Bobrovia. 



