Observations on Seals and Whales. 209 



^''/я 07, and that they come to these places, it may be to make a 

 breathing-hole or because there is open water in the channels between 

 the ice-floes and the thin ice begins to be too thick to be broken through Ч 

 Further, walrus were twice seen С^1\>лпа^'^1и01) in openings in Storm- 

 bugt (ca. 76V2° N. L.) and Danmarks Havn, but it is nevertheless 

 remarkable that the walrus should be seen so little in the fjords at 

 this time of year (October), although there are larger or smaller 

 openings at many places, where the seal (Phoca foetida) is extremely 

 common. When we come however to the outer coast we find many 

 signs of the walrus: open or recenth^ frozen-over breathing-holes in 

 the thin ice, or this shows distinct evidence of the presence and 

 behaviour of the walrus in the form of characteristic, hump-like 

 elevations with radiating cracks, probably formed by the walrus in 

 endeavouring to make an opening but later giving it up^'; perhaps 

 however it may rather be compared with the West Greenland "Nunar- 

 sak" (which means a breathing-hole in the ice, when this is covered 

 with snow). Newly formed and older holes for the walrus were 

 also seen here and there on the thin ice, in the form of oval open- 

 ings ca. 1^/2 — 2 m. in diameter; to judge from the broad belt of 

 water washed up and the fact that the pieces of ice thrown up lay 

 both on the surface and on the edge, the animal probably comes 

 up with great force, which indeed is necessary, as the thickness of 

 the thin ice quickly becomes too much for the powers or inclina- 

 tion of the walrus to break through it. The breathing holes of the 

 walrus are naturally much more numerous in the spring than in 

 the autumn; at the former period the thickness of the ice is far too 

 great for the walrus to break through, whereas the breathing holes 

 (which have a diameter of ca. 12 cm.) can be more easily made 

 and kept open. Just as in autumn it is now also necessary to go 

 to the outer coast to find the walrus (breathing-holes were seen in 

 the beginning of May 1907 on the ice at ca. 80° — 81° N. L. and on 

 ^^li 07 on the ice near the south point of He de France), while 

 they first appear in the fjords of North-East Greenland, as mentioned, 

 in the beginning of June. 



Where the animals here live during the period from November 

 — March, I do not know, but they are probablyobliged, for the sake 

 of their special kind of food, to keep to the coasts; and we may 

 therefore perhaps conclude, that it is at the outermost reefs and 

 islands where they appear earliest and latest in the year. 



The manner in which the walrus breaks the thin ice was 

 once observed (Stormcugt •'/:• 07); first they stick the head (when 



' I believe I have observed the same thing for Phoca foetida (Чю 07). 



- Observed off Maroussia Island in October 1907; the depth here was ca. 60 m. 



