THE 'WALRUS RECEDING FARTHER NORTH. 1G7 



Spitzbergen, exclusive of those which sink or may 

 die of their wounds, so that some idea may be 

 formed of the numbers of these curious and useful 

 amphibious monsters still existing in that country; 

 but it is quite clear that they are undergoing a rapid 

 diminution of numbers, and also that they are grad- 

 ually receding into more and more inaccessible re- 

 gions farther to the north. 



We learn from the voyage of Ohthere, which was 

 performed about a thousand years ago, that the wal- 

 rus then abounded on the coast of Finmarken it- 

 self: they have, however, abandoned that coast for 

 some centuries, although individual stragglers have 

 been occasionally captured there up to within the 

 last thirty years. After their desertion of the Fin- 

 marken coast, Bear Island became the principal 

 scene of their destruction ; and next the Thousand 

 Islands, Hope Island, and Ryk Yse Island, which 

 in their turn are now very inferior hunting-ground 

 to the banks and skerries lying to the north of 

 Spitzbergen. Fortunately for the persecuted wal- 

 ruses, however, these latter districts are only acces- 

 sible in open seasons, or perhaps once in every three 

 or four summers, so that they get a little breath- 

 ing time there to breed and replenish their num- 

 bers, or undoubtedly the next twenty or thirty years 

 would witness the total extinction of Rosmarus 

 trichecus on the coasts of the islands of northern 

 Europe. 



The walrus is also found around the coasts of 



