136 HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



but at the same moment it turned round and disappeared 

 as quickly as it had come." It had, however, ripped a 

 large hole in his canoe. 



Another occasion was not so serious: 



"Up they (the walrus) came again immediately 

 around the boat. . . . They stood up in the water, 

 bellowed and roared till the air trembled, threw them- 

 selves forward towards us, then rose up again, and new 

 bellowings filled the air. . . . The water foamed and 

 boiled for yards around. . . . Any moment we might 

 expect to have a walrus tusk or two through the boat, 

 or to be heaved up and capsized. But the hurly-burly 

 went on and nothing came of it." 



Henry G. Bryant, when with Peary, was attacked by 

 a large herd of walrus and succeeded in repelling their 

 persistent efforts to capsize the boat only by the use of 

 rifles and axes at arm's length. 



It has often been remarked that walrus herds keep 

 lookouts posted, while the majority sleep, to warn them 

 of danger. We could not confirm this. It seemed to us, 

 from our repeated observations at very close range, that 

 the supposed sentinels were merely animals who had been 

 disturbed by their fellows and had reared up to look 

 about for a comfortable place to lie down in. Their eye- 

 sight is evidently very poor and their hearing dulled by 

 the constant noise of the ice. Several times, also, we 

 gave oiu- wind to them without disturbing them in the 

 least, though their scent was doubtless keener than any 

 other sense except that of touch. 



Another detail wherein our observation differed 

 from the books prompts a contradiction of the statement 

 that the walrus is a hairless animal, and in this respect 

 to be grouped with the whale, porpoise and hippopotamus. 



