HABITS AND THE CHASE. 109 



duction of the Walrus is that long since given by Shuldham, 

 based on observations made a century ago at the Magdalen 

 Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (see antea, p. 67), to which 

 he says they repair " early in spring " and immediately bring 

 forth their young. Captain Parry states that he met with 

 females accompanied by their young in Fox Channel, July 13, 

 and Mr. Lamont speaks of meeting with young accompanied 

 by their parents at the same season (July 15) in the vicinity of 

 Spitsbergen. Captain Hayes refers to meeting with " calves 

 newly born " as early as July 3 in Frobisher's Bay. Captain 

 Parry says that Walruses killed by the Esquimaux in March (in 

 the years 1822 and 1823) were observed to be with young. * 



When repairing to the land or to the ice-floes to rest, those 

 first arriving are described as generally composing themselves 

 for a nap at the place where they first land, but their comrades 

 still in the water having a strong desire to land at the same 

 spot, the latter force those already on shore higher up, while 

 they in turn are pushed forward by later comers, their habits in 

 this, as well as in^many other respects, resembling those of the 

 Sea Lions and Sea Bears. 



The Walrus, like the common Seals, is said to have its breath- 

 ing-holes in the ice. These are described by Dr. Kane as being 

 similar to those of the Seals, having "the same circular, cleanly- 

 finished margin," but made in much thicker ice, with the " radi- 

 ating lines of fracture round them much more marked." The 

 ice around the holes *is much discolored, while near them are 

 numbers of broken 'clam-shells, and in one instance Dr. Kane 

 found " gravel, mingled with about half a peck of coarse shin- 

 gle of the beach. " t Kane says the Walrus often sleeps in the 

 water between the fields of drift-ice. " In this condition," he 

 relates, <S I frequently surprised the young ones whose mothers 

 were asleep by their sides." { Other writers refer to the same 

 habit. 



not think that the females and young live in separate herds from males, but 

 the males herd alone in early spring*. In the middle of summer both sexes 

 herd together ; then the males are very wild. I have seen many females 

 alone in the autumn. I do not think the females nurse their young over 

 twelve months." Communicated ~by Prof. H. A. Ward in a letter of date March 

 31, 1878. 



* Narrative of Parry's Second Voyage, p. 415. 



t Arctic Exploration, vol. i, 1856, pp. 141, 142. On page 142 is a figure 

 of a " Walrus hole." Mr. Eobert Brown gives a similar account (Proc; Zool. 

 Soc. Lond., 1868, p. 429), using, in fact, in part the same phraseology. 



t Ibid., vol. i, p. 141. 



