THE PACIFIC WALRUS 67 



Hiilsen observed hundreds of thousands in Bering 

 Straits. Fifty years later the animal was still 

 abundant in Bering Sea and Southern Alaska ; but 

 about this date the crews of the whalers began to 

 hunt walrus in July and August, whilst waiting to 

 attack their larger quarry, and since the walrus 

 " fishery " had already been prosecuted for many 

 years, the consquences were very serious. Some 

 years ago it was computed that over twelve thousand 

 animals were being annually killed, besides those 

 slain by the natives ; six thousand being yearly 

 sacrificed in Bering Straits alone ! Shot with rifle 

 and musket, speared and harpooned, the unfortunate 

 beasts present a ghastly record of destruction com- 

 parable only to the massacre of herons by the Florida 

 plume-hunters, or the reckless destruction of South 

 African game by the Boers. One almost already 

 seeks language in which to write the epitaph of the 

 Pacific walrus. 



Sad as it is to contemplate the threatened loss of 

 a fine species, the destruction of human life is yet 

 more harrowing. The coast natives are entirely 

 dependent on the walrus for food, tools, and building 

 materials ; for huts and boats ; for dog-harness, 

 fishing tackle, and money (material for barter) nay, 

 for life itself. In those icy regions the walrus is to 

 the Esquimaux what the American bison was to the 

 Red Indian, and what the reindeer is to the Lapp. 

 In the winter of 1878 it became grimly evident that 



