HABITS AND tHE CHASE. 119 



the intention of either getting them away or else of joining in 

 the attack upon them. Many of these animals had young ones 

 which, when assaulted, they either took between their fore-flip- 

 pers to carry off, or bore away on their backs. Both of those 

 killed by the Fury's boats were females, and the weight of the 

 largest was fifteen hundred-weight and two quarters nearly; 

 but it was by no means remarkable for the largeness of its 

 dimensions. The peculiar barking-noise made by the Wak-us, 

 when irritated, may be heard, on a calm day, with great dis- 

 tinctness at the distance of two miles at least. "We found mus- 

 quet-balls the most certain and expeditious way of despatching 

 them after they had been once struck with the harpoon, the 

 thickness of the skin being such, that whale-lances generally 

 bend without penetrating it. One of these creatures, being 

 accidentally touched by one of the oars of Lieutenant Mas's 

 boat, took hold of it between its flippers and forcibly twisting 

 it out of the man's hand, snapped it in two."* 



Again, says the same writer, " The Heckla's two boats had 

 one day a very narrow escape in assaulting a herd of these ani- 

 mals [Walruses] ; for several of them, being wounded, ^ade so 

 fierce an attack on the boats with their tusks, as to stave them 

 in a number of places, by which one was immediately swami)ed 

 and the other much damaged. The Fury's being fortunately 

 in sight prevented any further danger ; two of the Walruses 

 were kiUed and secured, and the damaged boats lightened and 

 towed to the shore, from which they had been several miles dis- 

 tant."! 



In addition to the foregoing testunony respecting the power 

 and courage of these animals when in the water, I add the fol- 

 lowing : Mr. Lamont states that " a boat belonging to a sloop 

 from Tromsoe had been upset two or three days before, in our 

 immediate vicinity, and one of the crew killed by a Walrus. It 

 seemed that the Walrus, a large old bull, charged the boat, and 

 the harpooner, as usual, received him with his lance full in the 

 chest ; but the shaft of the lance broke all. to shivers, and the 

 Walrus, getting inside of it, threw himself on the gunwale of 

 the boat and overset it in an instant. While the men were floun- 

 dering in the water among their oars and tackle, the infuriated 

 animal rushed in among them, and, selecting the unlucky har- 

 pooner, who, I fancy, had fallen next him, he tore him nearly 



* Narrative of Parry's Second Voyage, j). 268. tibid., p. 469. 



