HABITS AND THE CHASE. Ill 



the head of a human being when in this position."* The 

 -confounding, in early times, of the Eussian name Morss by the 

 peoples of Western Europe with the Latin word Mors and the 

 German word Tod, as already alluded to (antea, p. 81), finds its 

 explanation doubtless in exaggerated accounts of its terrible 

 aspect and power. 



The Walrus, either through confidence in its own power, or 

 through ignorance of the character of its human foes, is generally 

 not easily alarmed, and permits a near approach before manifest- 

 ing uneasiness or fear, sometimes, indeed, treating its human 

 visitors with quiet indifference. When found reposing on land, 

 it is, in fact, easily dispatched, unless it has been previously 

 subjected to repeated attacks, when it profits by dearly -bought 

 experience and makes a timely retreat to the water, and thus 

 commonly escapes its pursuers. With due caution, however, 

 the Walrus-hunters succeed in cutting off their retreat to the 

 sea, when hundreds of the then helpless creatures fall victims 

 to the hunter's rapacity. Says Zorgdrager, as translated by 

 Buffon : " On marchoit de front vers ces animaux pour leur cou- 

 per la retraite du cote de la mer ; ils voyoient tous ces prepara- 

 tifs sans aucune crainte, & souvent chaque chasseur en tuoit 

 un avant qu'il put rengagner 1'eau. On faisoit une barriere de 

 leurs cadavres & on laissoit quelques gens a Fassut pour assom- 

 mer ceux qui restoient. On en tuoit quelquefois trois ou qua- 

 tre cents. ... ^ On voit par la prodigieuse quantite d'os- 

 sernens de ces animaux dont la terre est jonche'e qu ? ils ont e"t 

 autrefois tres nombreux."t This manner of attack was also 

 well described a little later by Lord Shuldham, his detailed ac- 

 count of their destruction at the Magdalen Islands during the 

 last century being fully corroborated by scores of modern ob- 

 servers at numerous other localities. According to Lord Shuld- 

 ham, the hunters allowed them to come on shore to the number 

 of several hundred, and then cautiously approaching them from 

 the seaward, under cover of the darkness of night, would en- 

 deavor, by the aid of well-trained dogs, to cut off their retreat 

 to the water and drive them further inland. These attacks 

 were sometimes so successful that fifteen or sixteen hundred 

 have been killed in a single attack.f A similar wholesale de- 

 struction of Walruses was carried on by the English in the 



* Seasons with the Sea-horses, pp. 141, 142. 

 tBtiffon's Hist. Nat., torn, xiii, pp. 366, 367. 

 t For Lord Slmldham's account in full see anted, p. 67. 



