CHAP. ix. AWUK THE WALRUS. 123 



Thus wrote Albertus Magnus in the early part of the 

 thirteenth century (Englished in 1658). And here we 

 have one of the earliest accounts of the Walrus or Horse- 

 whale of the northern seas ; Awuk as he is called by the 

 long-headed Eskimos. 



A huge ugly brute is this said horse-whale. His blunt 

 stubbly snout, his great tusks, twenty inches or more 

 in length, his small bloodshot angry eye, his shaved-off 

 ear, his low forehead (though the form of the brain within 

 points to possibilities of unsuspected intelligence), his 

 wrinkled skin, scarred and gnarled with many a wound, 

 give him anything but a prepossessing appearance. His 

 forequarters are exceedingly massive and heavy, the body 

 tapering backwards ; and when he squats on the ice his 

 hind-quarters are so bent forward as to give his back a 

 rounded curve. His front limbs are embedded in the 

 huge forequarters to the elbow and are converted into 

 nipper paddles which can be turned forwards at the wrist. 

 His hind limbs are enveloped in the general skin of the 

 body as far as the ankles, the almost invisible tail lying in 

 the fold of loose skin which connects them heel to heel. 

 The feet can be turned forward at the ankle during pro- 

 gression on land or ice, and their under surfaces, as also 

 those of the fore-feet, are provided with rough warty 

 ridges giving them foothold on smooth ice and rock. 

 With these awkward limbs (awkward for progression on 

 land) they hitch, flop, and straddle along in a clumsy, 

 indolent fashion; though when hard pressed or alarmed 

 they can break into a hobbling canter. 



Such is the walrus on the ice. But let him tumble 

 into the water and he is a different being. There he is at 

 his ease. The hind feet held backwards form a powerful 

 stern propeller the fore flippers, efficient shovel-shaped 

 paddles. His ungainly awkwardness is exchanged for 



