Observations on Seals and Whales. 907 



sea-bottom, here and. there covered by washed-out sand and gravel 

 from glacier rivers of earlier times. The ground is quite flat but 

 gradually rises to about 10 m. as we go further in on the land. 

 Seven kilometers from the coast lies an extensive lake, which extends 

 as a narrow bight to the far distant inland ice. It w^as earlier a 

 fjord, which at the present day is only in connection with Dove 

 Bugt by means of a broad river, which flows down between 

 clay plains and gravelly slopes. Near the place, where it flows 

 into the sea, lies Hvalrosodden, altogether like a small, sandy 

 peninsula on the North Sea coast of Denmark. Its point is bare 

 sand, further in w^e find tufts of grass and various other plants, 

 especially in the small depressions of the ground, and while it is 

 almost level with the sea-bottom on the one side (wehere the river 

 has its outlet), it has a steeper slope on the other (out towards 

 Dove Bugt). It is at the latter place that the walrus comes up at 

 nights to rest; it is also from here that it plunges into the water 

 when it is surprised unexpectedly. As they could not stay here 

 while we were on the spot and hunting, they changed over to the 

 other side of the peninsula near to the outlet of the river, and we 

 could hear their bellowing and puffing the whole night long and 

 see the large animals rolling up on to the land. There is plenty of 

 food for them here (mussels, whelks and larger Crustacea), and this 

 is obviously a much more important matter for them than the 

 salinity of the w^ater, which is here not so salt but that one could 

 wash oneself with soap and almost drink it. 



On the other hand, the walrus is in the highest degree depen- 

 dent on the different conditions as to ice , which occur in the 

 fjord up here from year to year. In 1906, for example, the fjords 

 round Danmarks Havn were free of ice right in to their inner- 

 most branches, and the walrus had then an unhindered passage 

 everywhere; in 1907 the winter's ice was very thick, and only the 

 outer parts of the fjords were free of ice in the summer; further 

 up the meter-thick ice extended far in as an almost unbroken, wide 

 plane and of open water there was only a narrow belt along the 

 coasts. Consequently, the walrus was only very exceptionally seen 

 in on the fjord ice, coming up through an opening or broader 

 channel in the ice; the great majority however remained in the ice- 

 free parts of the fjord or in the open sea on the outer coast, and 

 when they wanted to rest, they then climbed up on pieces of drift- 

 ice or on the coastal ice here and there attached to the land. The 

 result was, that whereas in 1906 the walrus at Hvalrosodden kept 

 together in herds of up to 20, in 1907 they were always single or 

 only a couple together. 



