74 ODOB^NUS ROSMARUS ATLANTIC WALRUS. 



The Walruses appear to have been first met with on Cherie 

 Iskmd in 1G03, and to have become nearly exterminated there 

 within a very few years. The history of their destruction there 

 and at Spitzbergen during the early part of the seventeenth 

 century is given in the following excerpts : "In the yeare 1G03. 

 Stephen Bennet was imployed by the Companie,* in a Ship 

 called the Grace, to those parts li^orthwards of the Cape [''of 

 Xorway "], and was at Cherie Hand and killed some Sea-horses, 

 and brought home Lead Oare from thence . . . 



" Heere it is to bee understood, that the Companie having by 

 often resort and imi^loyment to tliose parts, observed the great 

 number of Sea-horses at Cherie Hand, and likewise the multi- 

 tude of Whales, that shewed themselves upon the coast of 

 Greenland [now Spitzbergen] ; Tliey first applj^ed thejnselves to 

 the killing of Morces, which they continued from yeere to yeere 

 with a Ship or two yeerely, in which Ships the Companie ap- 

 pointed Thomas Welden Commander, and in the yeere 1G09. the 

 Companie imployed one Thomas Edge their Apprentice, for their 

 Northern Voyage, and joyned him in Commission with the fore- 

 sayd Welden. Now the often using of Cherie Hand, did make 

 the Sea-horse grow scarce and decay, which made the Companie 

 looke out for further Discoveries."! 



Dui'ing the expedition of 1604, Jonas Poole, who has left an 

 account of the " Divers Voyages to Cherie Hand in the yeeres 

 1604, 1605, 1606, 1608, 1609," says that as they approached 

 Cherie Island, "We had not furled our Sayles, but we saw 

 many Morses swimming by our ship, and heard withall so hug-e 

 a noyse of roaring, as if there had beene an hundred Lious. 

 Immediately wee manned our Boate. . . . wee landed, and 

 saw abundance of Morses on thes hoare, close by the Sea-side," 

 etc. They attacked them with muskets, " not knowing whither 

 they could runne swiftly or seize \\\)0i^ us or no." Owing' to in- 

 experience, they succeeded in killing only fifteen out of " above 

 a thousand," but secured a hogshead of teeth, which they picked 

 up on the shore. Two days later they found, on another part 

 of the island, " neere a thousand Morses," of which they killed 

 " thirtie or thereabouts, and when wee had taken off their heads, 

 we went aboard." The next day they went on shore again and 



* Incorporated some time prior to tlie year 1556, under the name "The Mer- 

 chants of England," and called also the "Muscovia Merchants " and rli? 

 "Mnscovia Companie." 



t Purchas his Pilgrimes, vol. iii, p. 464. 



