298 TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



herd act altogether in common defence. If not interfered 

 with, they are harmless and inoffensive, though they are 

 tierce enough if attacked, when they prove dangerous 

 antagonists. Owing either to confidence in its own 

 powers, or want of appreciation of the danger of human 

 foes, it has been said to be, as a rule, not easily alarmed, 

 but permitting a near approach before manifesting 

 uneasiness or fear. Other accounts, however, describe 

 walruses as wary animals, usually keeping a sentinel on 

 guard while the herd is asleep. 



Their voice is a loud roaring, and can be heard at a 

 great distance. Dr. Kane has described it 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. 



As to the cruel and useless slaughter of these animals, 

 Lamont tells us that in August 1852, two small sloops 

 sailing in company approached an island, and soon 

 discovered a herd of walruses, numbering, as they calcu- 

 lated, from three to four thousand, reposing upon it. 

 Four boats' crews, or sixteen men, proceeded to the 

 attack with spears. The great mass of walruses lay in a 

 small sandy bay, with rocks enclosing it on each side. A 

 great many hundreds lay on other parts of the island at 

 a little distance. The boats landed a little way oif, so as 

 not to frighten them, and the sixteen men, creeping 

 along shore, got between the sea and the bay full of 

 walruses. The walrus is very active and fierce in the 

 water, when a herd will keep wonderfully together as 

 they dive and reappear, a hundred grisly heads, with 

 long gleaming white tusks, appearing above the waves at 

 the same moment. On shore, however, they are very 

 unwieldy and helpless, and those in the front soon 



