TRICHECHID& 599 



April and June, usually but one at a time, never more than two. 

 Their strong affection for their young, and their sympathy for each 

 other in times of danger, have been particularly noticed by all who 

 have had the opportunity of observing them in their native haunts. 

 When one of their number is wounded, the whole herd usually 

 join in a concerted and intelligent defence. Although harmless and 

 inoffensive when not molested, they exhibit considerable fierceness 

 when attacked, using their great tusks with tremendous effect 

 either on human enemies who come into too close quarters or on 

 Polar Bears, the only other adversaries they can meet with in their 

 own natural territory. Their voice is a loud roaring, and can be 

 heard at a great distance ; it is described by Dr. Kane as " some- 

 thing between the mooing of a cow and the deepest baying of a 

 mastiff, very round and full, with its bark or detached notes repeated 

 rather quickly seven or nine times in succession." 



The principal food of the Walrus consists of bivalved molluscs, 

 especially Mya truncata and Saxicava rugosa, two species very 

 abundant in the Arctic regions, which it digs up from the mud 

 and sand in which they lie buried at the bottom of the sea by 

 means of its tusks. It crushes and removes the shells by the aid 

 of its grinding teeth and tongue, swallowing only the soft part 

 of the animal. It also feeds on other molluscs, sand -worms, 

 star-fishes, and shrimps. Portions of various kinds of algae or 

 sea-weeds have been found in its stomach, but whether swallowed 

 intentionally or not is still doubtful. 



The commercial products of the AValrus are its oil, hide (used to 

 manufacture harness and sole-leather and twisted into tiller ropes), 

 and tusks. The ivory of the latter is, however, inferior in quality 

 to that of the Elephant. Its flesh forms an important article of 

 food to the Eskimo and Tchuktchis. Of the coast tribes of the 

 last-named people the Walrus forms the chief means of support. 

 " The flesh supplies them with food, the ivory tusks are made into 

 implements used in the chase and for other domestic purposes, as 

 Avell as affording a valuable article of barter, and the skin furnishes 

 the material for covering their summer habitations, harness for their 

 dog-teams, and lines for their fishing gear " (Scammon). 



Geographically the Walrus is confined to the northern circum- 

 polar regions of the globe, extending apparently as far north as 

 explorers have penetrated, but its southern range has been much 

 restricted of late in consequence of the persecutions of man. On the 

 Atlantic coast of America it was met with in the sixteenth century as 

 low as the southern coast of Nova Scotia, and in the last century it was 

 common in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and on the shores of Labrador. 

 It still inhabits the coast round Hudson's Bay, Davis Straits, and 

 Greenland, where, however, its numbers are daily decreasing. It 

 is not found on the Arctic coast of America between the 97th and 



