THE WALRUS. 205 



the water, which was coloured with their blood. They 

 were afterwards observed bringing them up at times 

 above the surface, as if for air, and again diving under 

 it with a dreadful bellowing. The female, in particular, 

 whose young had been destroyed and taken into the boat, 

 became so enraged that she attacked the cutter, and 

 struck her tusks through the bottom of it. 



In the arctic regions the flesh of the walrus is held by 

 the natives in great estimation ; Sir Edward Parry re- 

 marks that the flesh was tolerably good, affording variety 

 amid the ordinary sea-fare. The ivory is finer than that 

 of the elephant ; the skin makes excellent carriage-har- 

 ness ; and the oil is valuable, though only from twenty 

 to thirty gallons are yielded by a single carcase ; its 

 blubber, as Crantz says, being white and solid like bacon, 

 and a hand's breadth thick, but not giving out much fluid 

 oil. 



Seals' flesh, says Crantz, supi)lies the Greenlanders 

 " with their most palatable and substantial food ; the fat 

 furnishes them with oil for lamp-light, chamber and 

 kitchen fire ; and whoever sees their habitations pre- 

 sently finds that, even if they had superfluity of wood, 

 it would not be of use — they can use nothing but oil in 

 them. They also mollify their dry food, mostly fish, 

 with oil ; and finally they barter it for all kinds of ne- 

 cessaries with the factor. They can sew better with 

 fibres of the seal's sinews than with thread or silk ; of 

 the skins of the entrails they make window-curtains for 

 their tents, and shirts ; part of the bladder they use as a 

 float to their harpoons, and they make oil-flasks of the 

 stomach. Neither is the blood wasted, but is boiled up 

 with other ingredients and eaten as soup. Of the skin 

 of the seal they stand in the greatest need, because they 

 must cover with seal-skins both the large and small boats 

 in which they travel and seek their provisions. They 

 must also cut"^ out of them their thongs and straps, and 

 cover their tents with them, without which they could 

 not subsist in summer. No man therefore can pass for a 

 riaht Greenlander who cannot catch seals. This is the 



