1868.] MR. R. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. 431 



The Walrus, being an animal of considerable cerebral development, 

 is capable of being readily domesticated. For many years past the 

 Norwegians have frequently brought specimens to different Scandina- 

 vian ports ; and two have reached England, and survived a short time. 

 More than a century ago one of these animals reached England. De 

 Laet*, quoting from Edward Worst, who saw one of them alive in 

 England which was three months old and had been brought from 

 Nova Zembla, says : — " Every day it was put into water for a short 

 time, but it always seemed happy to return to dry ground. It was 

 about the size of a calf, and could open and shut its nostrils at plea- 

 sure. It grunted like a wild Boar, and sometimes cried with a strong 

 deep voice. It was fed with oats and millet, which it rather sucked 

 in than masticated. It was not -without difficulty that it approached 

 its master ; but it attempted to follow him, especially when it had 

 the prospect of receiving nourishment at his hand." Its naturali- 

 zation in our Zoological Gardens having therefore become a subject 

 of considerable interest, I cannot better conclude these notes on the 

 habits of the Walrus than by describing a young one I saw on 

 board a ship in Davis's Strait, in 1861, and which, had it survived, 

 was iutended for the Zoological Society. 



It was caught near the Duck-Islands off the coast of North 

 Greenland, and at the same time its mother was killed ; it was then 

 sucking, and too young to take the water, so that it fell an easy 

 prey to its captors. It could only have been pupped a very few 

 hours. It was then 3 feet in length, but already the canine "tusks 

 were beginning to cut the gums. When I first saw it, it was gruntino- 

 about the deck, sucking a piece of its mother's blubber, or sucking 

 the skin which lay on deck, at the place where the teats were. It 

 was subsequently fed on oatmeal and water and pea-soup, and 

 seemed to thrive upon this outre nourishment. No fish could be 

 got for it ; and the only animal food which it obtained was a little 

 freshened beef or pork, or Bear's flesh, which it readily ate. It had 

 its likes and dislikes, and its favourites on board, whom it instantly 

 recognized. It became exceedingly irritated if a newspaper was 

 shaken in its face, when it would run open-mouthed all over the 

 deck after the perpetrator of this literary outrage. When a " faH"f 

 was called it would immediately run at a clumsy rate (about one and a 

 half or two miles an hour), first into the surgeon's cabin, then into the 

 captain's (being on a level with the quarterdeck), apparently to see if 

 they were up, and then out again, grunting all about the deck in a most 

 excited manner " awuk\ awukV When the men were "sallying" J, 

 it would imitate the operation, though clumsily, rarely managing to 

 get more than its own length before it required to turn again. It lay 



* Description des Indes Occidentales, apud Buffon. 



t When a boat gets " fast " to a Whale, all the rest of the crew run shouting 

 about the decks, as they get the other boats out, " a fall ! a fall !" It is appa- 

 rently derived from the Dutch word " Val," a Whale. 



\ When a ship gets impeded by loose ice gathering around it, the crew rush in 

 a body from side to side so as to loosen it, by swaying the vessel from beam to 

 beam. This is called " sallying the ship.'' 



