TO THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 43 
several stones; and I am informed that a number 
of stones were found in the stomach of a Walrus 
that was killed last summer by the expedition that 
went to Spitzbergen. 
All that I have now to say of this animal is a few 
words respecting him as an article of food. The 
flesh of the sea-horse has been represented by dif- 
ferent navigators as very good eating ; but, with due 
deference to their opinion, I must own that as far as 
I am able to judge, nothing but absolute want could 
ever induce a person not accustomed to such food to 
eat it. In the first place, immediately under the 
skin, there was a layer two inches and a half thick of 
fat, that differed not materially in appearance, and 
not at all in its nature from whale’s blubber ; and the 
flesh, or muscular substance underneath this oleagin- 
ous coating, was as black as the crangt of a whale,. 
and smelt so intolerably, that even the dogs we had: 
on board would not touch it. It is but just, however, 
to mention that we cooked the heart, which was 
found to be tolerably good eating; but the disgust. 
occasioned by the offensive odour from the carcase 
of the animal was so great, that we could hardly rid 
ourselves of the idea that the heart did not partake 
in some degree of the disgusting qualities of the 
body. ‘The fat, or blubber, has, nevertheless, been 
turned to some advantage, for it was stripped off, 
and put into a cask, until an opportunity occurs for 
boiling it, when it is expected to produce from 
thirty to forty gallons of oil. 
We had to-night, for the first time this season, a 
* This is a term used by the Greenland, or whale-fishermen, 
which signifies the fleshy, or muscular part of the whale, that is 
Jeft after the blubber is flinched or taken off. 
