HABITS. 179 



quit the dam, though she be dead ; so that, if you kill one, you 

 are sure of the other. The dam, when in the water, holds the 

 young one between her fore fins."* 



In Captain King's continuation of the narrative of Cook's 

 last voyage, reference is made to a " Sea Horse" hunt. "Our 

 people," says the account, " were more successful than they 

 had been before, returning with three large ones, and a young 

 one, besides killing and wounding several others. The gentle- 

 men who went on this party were witnesses of several remark- 

 able instances of parental affection in those animals. On the 

 approach of our boats toward the ice, they all took their cubs 

 under their fins and endeavored to escape with them into the 

 sea. Several, whose young were killed or wounded and left 

 floating on the surface, rose again and carried them down, some- 

 times just as our people were going to take them up into the 

 boat, and might be traced bearing them to a great distance 

 through the water, which was colored with their blood. We 

 afterward observed them bringing them, at times, above the 

 surface, as if for air, and again diving under it with a dreadful 

 bellowing. The female, in particular, whose young had been 

 destroyed and taken into the boat, became so enraged that 

 she attacked the cutter and struck her two tusks through the 

 bottom of it."t 



The accounts given by subsequent observers confirm the 

 general truthfulness of this brief but comprehensive sketch, 

 and supply some further details respecting its interesting his- 

 tory. Mr. H. W. Elliott, recently an agent in the employ of 

 the Treasury Department of the United States Government, 

 stationed at the Prybilov Islands, has made these animals a 

 special study, under opportunities unusually favorable for 

 observation. On Walrus Island, well known as being still a 

 favorite resort for a large herd of old males, he was able to ap- 

 proach within a few yards of a herd of several hundred old 

 bulls, which lay closely packed upon a series of low basaltic 

 tables, elevated but little above the wash of the surf. Here he 

 studied and painted them from life,J seated upon a rocky ledge 

 a few feet distant from and above them. He describes these 

 scarred, wrinkled, and almost naked old veterans as of by no 

 means prepossessing appearance. He says they are sluggish 



* Cook's Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, etc., vol. ii, p. 458. 

 tlbid., vol. iii, p. 248. 

 t See antea, p. 174. 



