40 SEALS AND WHALES OF THE BRITISH SEAS. 



one man survived. Several of the whalers have consequently refused to take 

 any part in future Walrus hunts on the coast; they assert that for every 

 hundred animals killed, a native family must perish by starvatfwi, and they 

 will not incur so heavy a responsibility." 



About the month of August they repair to. the shore, and congregating 

 in vast herds on the beach of some secluded bay, lie for weeks together in a 

 semi-torpid condition, without moving or feeding. Should their retreat be 

 discovered whilst in this state, great is the slaughter. Mr. Lamont, in his 

 'Seasons with the Sea Horses,' says that in 1852, on a small island off 

 Spitzbergen (one of the Thousand Islands), two small sloops discovered a 

 herd of Walruses consisting of three or four thousand, nine hundred of which 

 they succeeded in killing, only a small portion of the produce of which, 

 however, they were able to carry away. 



The colour of the Walrus is brown, paling with age, and the skin is thickly 

 covered with short hairs ; the adult reaches the length of 10 or 15 feet, or, 

 according to some authorities, even more, and weighs from two to three 

 thousand pounds. Its rounded head, heavy muzzle, thickly set with stout 

 bristles, small, round blood-shot eyes, and formidable tusks, give to this 

 animal a ferocious appearance which is foreign to its nature, except when 

 greatly excited or at pairing time, when the old bulls are said to fight with 

 great fierceness and determination. A full-grown Walrus will yield from five 

 to six hundred pounds of blubber, the oil from which, however, is not so 

 fine as that of the Seal. The ivory tusks were formerly much used by 

 dentists ; at present, I believe, owing to the introduction of vulcanite, very 

 little is applied to that purpose. Mr. Lamont mentions 24 in. in length 

 and 4 lb. each in weight, as the size of a good pair of bull's tusks : a pair in 

 the Norwich Museum measure 32 in. in length, and the heavier of the two 

 weighs 91b. 90Z. The immensely elongated canine teeth which form the 

 "tusks," are found in both sexes, but are shorter and more slender in the 



