78 VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN. 



by the ancient poets*, and is thus alluded to by 

 Sir Walter Scott, in one of his poems : 



«« Rude Heiskar's seals, through surges dark, 

 Will long pursue the minstrel's bark." 



These animals, in swimming, constantly keep 

 the head, and often the whole body, as far as the 

 shoulder, above the surface of the water. The first I 

 saw was at a considerable distance, and might easily 

 have been mistaken for a man, though it was much 

 liker a dog. 



Buft'on has already remarked, that this animal 

 had given a foundation to the poetic fiction of the 

 Nereids in antiquity ; and perhaps we may add, to 

 the no less fictitious mermaids of modern times. 



The Arctic walrus, or Trichechus rosmarus of 

 Linnaeus, the other great variety of the Phocse, fre- 

 quents the bays and shores of Spitzbergen in vast 

 numbers, though they are not now found in such 

 quantities as when the Europeans first navigated 

 these seas. The walrus is considerably larger than 

 the seal, being sometimes found eighteen feet long, 

 and twelve round, where thickest+. Their charac- 



* Apol. Rliod. lib. 1. Vol. Flac. lib. 5: lin. 440. Gaudebant 

 armine Phocae. 



f The largest we caught was only thirteen feet long and seven 

 rouud. 



