ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 157 



festation of tlieir service to the members of the herd, which was con- 

 tinually augmented by fresh arrivals from the surf while under my 

 eye. They did not in a single instance use their tusks in this man- 

 ner; it was all done by the fore flippers, and "boosting" of excep- 

 tionally heavy surf which rolled in at wide intervals, and for which 

 marine assistance the walrus themselves seemed to patiently wait.^ 



With all this apparent indifference, however, they have established 

 their reputation for vigilance in spite of it; and they resort to a very 

 singular method of keeping guard, if I may so term it. In this herd 

 of three or four hundred male walrus that were under my ej^es, though 

 nearly all were sleeping, yet the movement of one would disturb the 

 other, which would raise its head in a stupid manner for a few moments, 

 grunt once or twice, and before lying down to sleep again it would 

 strike the slumbering form of its nearest companion with its tusks, 

 causing that animal to rouse up in turn for a few moments also, 

 grunt, and pass the blow on to the next, lying down in the same man- 

 ner. Thus the word was transferred, as it were, constantly and unceas- 

 ingly around, always keeping some one or two aroused, which conse- 

 quently were more alert than the rest. 



' I have seen no description of this Pacific walrus which is as good as is the first 

 notice of it ever made to English readers, by Captain Cook, in his Last Voyage. 

 It is, as far as it goes, precisely in accordance witli my views of the same animal, 

 nearly a century later, viz, July, 1873. He said: "They lie in herds of many hun- 

 dreds upon the ice, huddling one over the other like swine, and roar or bay very loud, 

 so that in the night or in foggy weather they gave us notice of the vicinity of the 

 ice before we could see it. We never found the whole herd as|eep, some being 

 always on the watch. These, on the approach of the boat, woiild wake those next 

 to them, and the alarm being thus gradvially communicated, the whole herd wotild 

 be awalvo presently. But they were seldom in a hurry to get away till after they 

 had once been fired at, Avhen they would tumble one over the other into the sea in 

 the utmost confusion, and if we did not at the first discharge kill those we fired 

 at we generally lost them, though mortally wounded. They did not appear to 

 be that dangerous animal some aiithors have described, not even when attacked. 

 They are rather more so to appearance than in reality. Vast numbers of them 

 would follow, and some come close up to the boats; but the flash of a musket in 

 the pan, or even the bare pointing of one at them, would send them down in an 

 instant. The female will defend the young one to the very last, and at the 

 expense of her own life, whether in the water or upon the ice. Nor will the 

 young one quit the dam though she be dead; so that if yoii kill one you are ^ure 

 of the other. The dam, when in the water, holds the young one between her fore 

 fins." (Cook's Voyages to the Pacific Ocean, 1778, etc., vol. ii, p. 458. London, 

 1785.) 



I do not wish to appear in the light of desiring to detract one iota from that 

 credit of accurate description which so justly belongs to Cook; but he himself did 

 not indicate that he thought the Pacific walrus a distinct species from its Atlantic 

 congener. His figure of the Bering Sea Eosmarvs is entirely grotesque. A 

 human face with beard, a thin neck, and immensely inflated posteriors, and fore 

 flippers divided up into distinct fingers, make a creature as totally unlike Odobcenns 

 ohesus as need be; yet naturalists have gravely spoken of it as "excellent!" Had 

 Captain Cook possessed the same explicit and graphic power of description in his 

 pencil that characterizes his pen, I know full well that this caricature above 

 referred to (Cook's V^oyage to the Pacific Ocean, etc., 1776-1780, vol. n, pi. lii) 

 would never have appeared. 



The pinnipeds are, perhaps, of all animals, the most difficult subjects that the 

 artist can find to reproduce from life. There are no angles or elbows to seize hold 

 of— the lines of the body and limbs are all rounded, free, and flowing; yet the very 

 fleshiest examples never have that bloated, wind-distended look which most of the 

 figures published give them. One must first become familiarized with the rest- 

 less, varying attitudes of these creatures, by extended personal contact and 

 observation, ere he can satisfy himself with the result of his drawings, no matter 

 how expert he may be in rapid and artistic delineation. Life studies, by artists, 

 of the young of the Atlantic walrus have been made in several instances, but of 

 the mature animal there is nothing eztant of that character. 



