WALRUS, OR SEA-HORSE. 115 



lesson, it would appear, could be learned very tho- 

 roughly ; for Cook again remarks, " We never found 

 the whole herd asleep, some being always on the 

 watch. These, on the approach of the boat, would 

 rouse those next to them ; and the alarm being thus 

 gradually communicated, the whole herd would be 

 awake presently." 



But, with all their watchfulness, we are not to 

 wonder that, when man makes the attack, and se- 

 lects his time and opportunity, his designs should 

 circumvent, and his arts entrap, his devoted vic- 

 tim. We have already seen that their first object 

 is always to escape ; but if foiled in this, they de- 

 fend themselves with boldness, and conduct them? 

 selves with a gallantry which ensures the re- 

 spect, at least, of their foes. " When I wounded 

 one," says Martens, " others speedily surrounded 

 the boat, and whilst some endeavoured to pierce it 

 with their tusks, others raised themselves out of the 

 water, and did every thing they could to board it."* 

 The testimony of the celebrated Captain, now Sir 

 Edward Parry, is very specific on this point. On 

 encountering these animals in Fox's Channel, he re- 

 marks, " we saw about 200 lying piled, as usual, over 

 each other on the loose drift ice. A boat's crew from 

 both the Fury and Hecla proceeded to the attack ; 

 but these gallant Amphibia, some with their cubs 

 mounted on their back, made a most desperate re- 

 sistance, and one of them tore the planks of a boat 



* Voyage in Greenland. 



