36 THE SEALS AND WALRUSES. 



for two weeks together, without ever taking food. They are believed to be monogamous, and to 

 bring forth usually but a single young at a time, and never more than two. The period of gesta- 

 tion is commonly believed to be about nine months. The young are born from April to June, the 

 time probably varying with the latitude. The Walrus, like the common Seal, is said to have its 

 breathing hole in the ice. The tusks appear to be used for two purposes, to aid in landing upon 

 icy and rocky shores, and in aid of their clumsy locomotion, and also iu digging up the shell-fish 

 and roots of marine plants upon which they feed. Their voice is a loud roaring or Chucking," and 

 the voices of a herd may be distinguished at the distance of several miles. Although savage in 

 appearance, they are inoffensive and harmless, except when attacked, but when enraged are fierce 

 and vindictive, especially iu defense of their young, for which they exhibit much affection. They 

 are wary and shy, however, and difficult to approach except under cover of darkness. 



The hide, the oil, and the tusks of the Walrus are of commercial value, and the walrus fishery 

 of the Pacific is of considerable importance. 



''In looking at this uncouth animal," writes a contributor to ' Scribner's Monthly Magazine,' 

 " the most natural question at once arises, What earthly service can such an ungainly, stupid beast 

 render? What, indeed, is the use of its existence! But the answer is swift and satisfactory: were 

 it not for the subsistence furnished so largely by the flesh and oil of the Morse, it is exceedingly 

 doubtful whether the Esquimaux of North America, from Bering Strait clear around to Labrador, 

 could manage to live. It is not to be inferred that walrus meat is the sole diet of these simple 

 people, for that is very wide of the truth ; but there are several months of every year when the 

 exigencies of the climate render it absolutely impossible for the hardiest native to go out and procure 

 food, and then the value of the cache of walrus meat is appreciated, when for weeks and weeks it 

 forms the beginning and end of every meal. The Walrus responds to as many demands of the 

 Inuuit as the camel of the Arab, or the cocoa-palm of the South Sea Islander. Its flesh feeds him; 

 its oil illuminates and warms his dark hut; its sinews make his bird-nets; its tough skin, skillfully 

 stretched over the light wooden frame, constitutes his famous kayak, and the serviceable oomiak, 

 or bidarrab ; its intestines are converted into water-proof clothing, while the soles to its flippers are 

 transferred to his feet; and, finally, its ivory is a source of endless utility to him in domestic use 

 and in trade and barter. Walrus famines among the Esquimaux have been recorded in pathetic 

 legends by almost all of the savage settlements in the arctic. Even now, as I write (November, 

 1880), comes the authentic corroboration of the harsh rumor of the starvation of the inhabitants of 

 Saint Lawrence Island those people who live just midway between the Old World and the New, 

 in Alaskan waters. The winter of 1879-'80 was one of exceptional rigor in the arctic, though iu 

 this country it was unusually mild and open. The ice closed in solid around Saint Lawrence 

 Island, so firm and unshaken by the mighty powers of wind and tide that the Walrus were driven 

 far to the southward and eastward, out of reach of the unhappy inhabitants of that island, who, 

 thus unexpectedly deprived of their mainstay and support, seem to have miserably starved to death, 

 with the exception of one small village on the north shore. The residents of the Poonook, Poogo- 

 vellyak. and Kagallegak settlements perished, to a soul, from hunger nearly 300 men, women, 

 and children. I was among these people in 1874, during the month of August, and remarked their 

 manifold superiority over the savages of the northwest coast and the great plains. They seemed 

 then to live, during nine months of the year, almost wholly upon the flesh and oil of the Walrus. 

 Clean-limbed, bright-eyed, and jovial, they profoundly impressed one with their happy subsistence 

 and reliance upon the walrus herds of Bering Sea; and it was remarked then that these people had 

 never been subjected to the temptation, and subsequent sorrow, of putting their trust in princes; 

 hence their independence and good heart. But now it appears that it will not suffice, either, to put 

 .your trust in Walrus." 



