260 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Captain Cook's description of a herd of \\alrusses. 



The Greenlandersj on discovering a herd of 

 walrusses upon the ice, approach in their boats, 

 and fling their harpoons as the alarmed animals 

 are tumbling themselves along the steeps of the 

 ice into the sea. They embrace this opportunity 

 of killing them., as the animals distend their skins 

 to roll with greater lightness and facility ; and are 

 consequently easier to hit than when they are at 

 rest on the shore, and the skin is flaccid. 



Captain Cook saw a herd of walrusses floating 

 on a mass of ice off the northern part of the con- 

 tinent of America, of which he has given the 

 following description: "They lie in herds of 

 many hundreds, upon the ice, huddling over one 

 another like swine ; and roar or bray so very 

 loud, that in the night, or in foggy weather, they 

 gave us notice of the vicinity of the ice before 

 we could see it. We never found the whole 

 herd asleep, some being always upon the watch. 

 These, on the approach of the boat, would rouse 

 those next to them ; and the alarm being gradu- 

 ally communicated, the whole herd would be 

 awake presently. But they were seldom in a 

 hurry to get away, till after they had been once 

 fired at. They then would tumble over each 

 other into the sea in the utmost confusion; and 

 if we did not, at the first discharge, kill those we 

 fired at, we generally lost them, though mortally 

 wounded. They did not appear to us to be such 

 dangerous animals as some authors have describ- 

 ed; not even when attacked. They are rather 



