FISHERIES OF ALASKA IN 1910. 59 



WALRUSES. 



This animal, which is not found south of the Bering Sea shore of 

 the Aleutian chain, was at one time very numerous north of there, 

 and the hunting of it and the seal formed the principal occupation 

 of the Eskimos during the summer. It goes north as the ice breaks 

 up in the spring and returns again in the fall, stopping but a short 

 time at any spot and keeping close to the ice pack all this time. 



While the hunting was carried on solely by the natives the herd 

 suffered no appreciable diminution, but in 1868 the whalers began 

 to turn their attention to walrus catching with serious results to the 

 natives, as set forth in a former report. 



To many of the Eskimos, especially on the Arctic shore, the walrus is almost a 

 necessity of life, and the devastation wrought amongst the herds by the whalers has 

 been, and is yet, the cause of fearful suffering and death to many of the natives. The 

 flesh is food for man and dogs; the oil is used for food and for lighting and heating the 

 houses; the skin, when tanned and oiled, makes a durable cover for the large skin 

 boats; the intestines make waterproof clothing, window covers, and floats; the tuska 

 are used for lance or spear points or are carved into a great variety of useful and orna- 

 mental objects, and the bones are used to make heads for spears and for other purposes. 



During the first part of every season there is but little opportunity to capture whales, 

 they being within the limits of the icy barrier. As a result much of the whalers' time 

 during July and August was devoted to capturing walruses. Men would be landed on 

 the shore in June and left to watch for the animals to haul up on the beach at certain 

 points. The walrus must either come ashore or get on the ice, and when a herd is 

 well ashore one or two old bulls are generally left on watch. The best shot among the 

 hunters now creeps up, and by a successful rifle shot or two kills the guard. Owing 

 to their very defective hearing the noise made by the rifle does not awaken them. 

 The gun is then put aside and each hunter, armed with a sharp ax, approaches the 

 sleeping animals and cuts the spines of as many of them as possible before the others 

 become alarmed and stampede for the water and escape. 



The natives hunt the walrus in kayaks, with ivory-pointed spears 

 and sealskin line and floats. When the animal is exhausted by its 

 efforts to escape, the hunters draw near and give the death stroke 

 with a lance. 



In 1908 Congress passed an act for the protection of game in Alaska, 

 and in this the killing of walrus north of latitude 62° was permitted 

 only from August 1 to December 10, both inclusive, while no one per- 

 son was permitted to kill more than one. 



This year new regulations were promulgated by the Department of 

 Agriculture, and in these the open season for walruses in Bering Sea 

 and Strait north of the Kuskokwim River is from May 1 to July 1, 

 while all killing in Bristol Bay and Bering Sea south of the Kuskok- 

 wim River is prohibited until 1912. 



As the natives are permitted to kill the walrus for food and cloth- 

 ing at any time when in need of food, the object of the law, which is 



oThe Commercial Fisheries of Alaska in 1905. By John N. Cobb, Bureau of Fisheries Document 603, 

 p. 35, 1906. 



