178 ODOB^ENUS OBESUS PACIFIC WALRUS. 



reports meeting with herds there embracing thousands, and 

 even hundreds of thousands, of individuals.* 



During recent years, in addition to the number killed by the 

 natives, the whalers are said to have destroyed as many as 12,000 

 annually, so reducing their numbers that the natives have be- 

 come anxious lest they shall soon lose this source of subsist- 

 ence, upon which they are so dependent. 



HABITS, FOOD, COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS, AND THE CHASE. 

 The Pacific Walrus appears to agree quite nearly in habits with 

 its closely allied congener of the Atlantic waters. It has the 

 same gregarious propensity, the same intense affection for its 

 young, the same strong sympathy for a distressed comrade, 

 lives upon similar food, and is limited in its distribution by 

 about the same isotherms. Its leading characteristics were 

 concisely stated nearly a century since by Captain Cook in the 

 following words : 



" They lie, in herds of many hundreds, upon the ice ; hud- 

 dling one over the other like swine ; and roar or bray very loud 5 so 

 that, in the night, or in foggy weather, they gave us notice of 

 the vicinity of the ice, before we could see it. We never found 

 the whole herd asleep ; some being always on the watch. These, 

 on the approach of the boat, would wake those next to them 

 and the alarm being thus gradually communicated, the whole 

 herd would be awake presently. But they were seldom in a 

 hurry to get away, till after they had been once fired at. Then 

 they would tumble one over the other, into the sea, in the utmost 

 confusion. And, if we did not, at the first discharge, kill those 

 we fired at, we generally lost them, though mortally wounded. 

 They did not appear to be that dangerous animal some authors 

 have described ; not even when attacked. They are rather more 

 so, to appearance, than in reality. Vast numbers of them would 

 follow, and come close up to the boats. But the flash of a mus- 

 quet in the pan, or even the bare pointing of one at them, would 

 send them down in an instant. The female will defend the 

 young one to the very last, and at the expense of her own life, 

 whether in the water or upon the ice. Nor will the young one 



* Von Middendorff says, " Tausende ja Hunderttausende im lebensfrische- 

 ren Berings-Eismeere," and cites as authority a Russian "writer named 

 Hiilsen. Von Middendorff continues, " Im Jahre 1821 iiber sah er [Hiilsen] 

 dort im Dezember Tausende, zu Ende des Juni Hunderttausende von Wal- 

 rossen zugleich,welche die Luft mit ihrem Stohnen erfiillten und von denen 

 inige, fruchtlos kratzend, sich bemiihten an den Schlffswandungen empor- 

 zuklimmen." Silirische Rdse, Bd. iv, p. 913, and footnote. 



