4742 THE ZooLoGistT—JANUARY, 1876. 
long, weighs about 20 cwt., and its skin is three inches and a 
half thick (a sort of massive coat of mail), with a head of infinite 
ugliness, rather large eyes, and tusks sometimes thirty inches long 
(of a sort of ivory), which helps the creature to obtain his food 
(chiefly mussels) from the bottom of the sea, and, together with the 
breast-fins, help him to climb on to the floating ice to a place of 
rest. Round his jaws are long cat-like bristles, as thick as a large 
darning-needle. Demoniacal as his appearance is, his voice is as 
bad—a jerking, imitative scream, lowing and puffing, often repeated, 
and in which it seems to delight. Walruses and seals, from their 
richness in train-oil, are highly estimated in the Arctic fishery, and 
are invaluable to the Esquimaux; indeed, in many cases when— 
either from the blocking up of the coast with ice or the retreating 
of the herd—they have been unable to catch any, they have almost 
died of hunger. One way the Esquimaux have of killing the seals 
is to approach them by degrees with a white screeu, behind which 
they crouch ; and another by lying in ambush amongst the ice, and 
harpooning them. One of the largest walruses that we saw was 
killed on the ice near Shannon, on the 27th of August, 1869, by 
Dr. Copeland: it measured nine feet eleven inches in length. The 
skin is particularly flexible and soft, and the leather we used for 
straps for the machinery. The time it remains under water de- 
pends upon the time the creature has had for preparation. If a 
walrus is suddenly hunted from his sleep into the water it must 
rise again immediately to the surface. Nowit takes a deep breath. 
If it is again hunted it comes up again; if this is repeated five or 
six times the walrus then seems to be provided with a store, for 
now it dives in reality, and is seldom seen again. 
Walrus-hunting is very dangerous, for in its fury this animal can 
break through ice six inches thick. If, therefore, it is not met 
with on strong old ice, it is necessary to change one’s place very 
quickly, for (as is the case with all mammals) the walrus is obliged 
to come to the surface of cracks, or ice-holes, kept open for the 
purpose, in order to breathe every ten minutes. The animals notice 
exactly the direction and the distance of their enemy, and emerge 
at the spot to meet and destroy him. MReturning from the sledge- 
journey from the Tiroler Fjord we had abundant opportunity of 
proving this. Contrasted with its ferocity in the water, there is 
nothing more innocent and harmless than a herd of walruses sunning 
themselves on an ice-floe or the shore, or indeed sleeping on the 
