444 



OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



in number, are great walrus-hunters. They enjoy a location that 

 enables them to secure these animals at all seasons of a year. In win- 

 ter the sea-horse floats on big ice-fields ; but during summer-time 

 the " aibwook" hauls up to sun and rest his heavy body in and on 

 the inviting peace of those beaches of St. Lawrence. A famous spot 

 for this landing of the walrus is on the rocky and pebbly shores of 

 Poonook (three small rocky islets), just five miles east of the sum- 

 mer tents of Kagallegak. These tiny, detached fragments of St. 

 Lawrence stand in the full sweep of those air- and water-currents 



which keep broad ice-floes 

 in constant motion, and 

 thus bring walrus-herds 

 into range of Mahlemoot 

 hunters, who have a winter 

 village dug deep into sandy 

 flats of "Poonookah." 



Naturally enough we 

 regard the walrus with 

 more than passing interest, 

 for it plays so large and so 

 vital a part in sustaining 

 the life of human beings 

 who reside in these arctic 

 and subarctic regions of 

 Alaska. Perhaps the only 

 place in all this extended 

 area in which these clumsy 

 brutes are found, where 

 the creature itself can be 

 closely observed and studied, is that unique islet, six miles east of 

 St. Paul (Pribylov group) and about four hundred miles south of 

 St. Lawrence. 



Here the morse rests upon some rocky, surf- washed tables char- 

 acteristic of this place without being disturbed ; hence the locality 

 afforded me a particularly pleasant and advantageous opportunity 

 of minutely observing these animals. My observations, perhaps, 

 would not have passed over a few moments of general notice, had I 

 found a picture presented by them such as I had drawn in my 

 mind from previous descriptions ; the contrary, however, stamping 

 itself so suddenly and decidedly upon my eye, set me to work with 



The Walrus hunter 



[A St. Laiorence Jfahleraovt — iti lointer parka with the 



hood removed. Angvst 16, 1874.] 



