THE WALRUS, OR MORSE. 307 



the boat, would wake those next to them ; and the alarm 

 being thus gradually communicated, the whole herd would 

 be awaked. But they were seldom in a hurry to get away, 

 till after they had been once fired at. They then would 

 tumble over one another into the sea, in the utmost confu- 

 sion. And if we did not, on the first discharge, kill those 

 we fired at, we generally lost them, though mortally 

 wounded. Vast numbers of these animals would follow 

 and come close up to the boats ; but the flash of a musket 

 in the pan, or even the pointing of a musket at them, would 

 send them down in an instant. The female Walrus will 

 defend her offspring to the very last, and at the expense 

 of her own life, whether in the water or upon the ice. Nor 

 will the young one quit the dam, though she be dead ; so 

 that, if one be killed, the other is a certain prey." 



We find the Walrus can live, at least for some time, in 

 a temperate climate. We do not know how long it goes 

 with young, but if we judge by the time of its growth and 

 size, we must suppose it to be upwards of nine months. 

 It cannot continue in the wate* for a long time together, 

 and is obliged to go on shore to suckle its young, and 

 for other occasions. When they meet with a steep shore, 

 or pieces of ice to climb up, they make use of their tusks 

 to hold by, and their feet to drag along the heavy mass of 

 their body. They are said to feed upon the shell-fish 

 which are at the bottom of the sea, and to grub them up 

 with their strong tusks. Others say, that they live on the 

 broad leaves of a certain vegetable which grows in the 

 sea, and that they eat neither flesh nor fish. But I 

 imagine all these opinions have but a weak foundation ; 

 and there is reason to think, that the Walrus, like the 

 seal, lives on prey, especially herrings and other fish, for 

 it does not eat at all when upon land, and it is chiefly 

 hunger which obliges it to return to the sea. 



