166 ADVENTURES IN THE NORTHERN SEAS. 



the walrus hunters who frequent Spitzbergen, and 

 from my knowledge of the man I fully believe it to 

 be the case. 



He had been obliged to go over to Hammerfest 

 to refit some twenty days ago, on account of the 

 leakiness of his vessel ; but, even at that early peri- 

 od of the season, he had taken with him a cargo 

 of sixty walruses and a hundred seals, and now he 

 was back again among the ice in hopes of filling 

 his vessel a second time before the autumnal gales 

 set in. 



When the walrus trade was first systematical!}- 

 followed from Tromsoe and Hammerfest, much 

 larger vessels were employed, and it was usual for 

 them to get their first cargo about Bear Island 

 early in the season, and two more cargoes at Spitz- 

 bergen in the course of the summer. This sys- 

 tematic and wholesale slaughter soon exterminated 

 or drove away the walruses from the banks around 

 Bear Island ; but even after that it was a common 

 thing to procure three cargoes in a season at Spitz- 

 bergen, and less than two full cargoes was consid- 

 ered very bad luck indeed ; now, however, it is a 

 rare thing to get more than one cargo in a season, 

 and many vessels return home after four months' 

 absence only half full. 



From all the information which I have been able 

 to collect on the subject, I calculate that about one 

 thousand walruses and twice that number of beard- 

 ed seals are annually captured in the seas about 



