434 MR. R. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. [JunC 25, 



Economic value and hunting. — The ivory tusks of the Walrus 

 always command a good price in the market ; and the hides are held 

 in high value as an article of commerce ; they are used as material 

 for defending the yards and rigging of ships from chafing. It is 

 also occasionally used for strong bands in various machinery, carriage- 

 making, &c. The flesh tastes something like coarse beef. The whalers 

 rarely or ever use it, having a strong prejudice against it in common 

 with that of Seals and Whales. The Walrus-hunters in Spitzbergen 

 almost exist upon it ; and the Eskimo high up in Smith's Sound 

 look upon it as their staple article of food. The American explo- 

 rers who wintered there soon acquired a liking for it. Accordingly 

 the " Morsk " has been limited in northern regions from a very early 

 period. The Icelandic Sagas (such as the Speculum regale &c.) 

 speak of it as Rostungur ; and there is said to be a letter in the 

 library of the Vatican proving that the old Norse and Icelandic 

 colonists in Greenland paid their "Peter's Pence" in the shape of 

 Walrus-tusks and hides. However, in 890, as far back as the days 

 of King Alfred of England, (Ethere, " the old sea-captain who dwelt 

 in Helgoland," gave a most circumstantial account to that monarch 

 (who wrote it down in his Orosius) of slaying, he and his six com- 

 panions, no less than " three score Horse-whales" in one day. At 

 the present period it is principally captured in Spitzbergen by Russian 

 and Norwegian hunters, who visit that island for the purpose. In 

 Danish Greenland, though it was once so abundant that the principle 

 article of trade with Europe, in the days of Erik Raude's colonists, 

 was the tusks of this animal, it may be said now-a-days, so far as its 

 hunting or commercial value is concerned, to be extinct. There are 

 never more than a few killed yearly, and it frequently happens that 

 a year passes without any at all being killed within the limits of the 

 Danish trading-posts. It is more than probable that they never were 

 abundant in South Greenland, but that the old colonists went north 

 in pursuit of them. From the Runic column found on the island of 

 Kingatarsoak in 73° N. lat., we know that these enterprising rovers 

 did sail far north ; and it is more than reasonable to suppose that it 

 was on one of these Walrus-hunting expeditions that this monument 

 was erected. Indeed so few are now killed in Danish Greenland 

 (whether through degeneracy of the hunters or scarcity of the Wal- 

 rus it is scarcely worth inquiring too closel}') that as, notwithstand- 

 ing all the appliances of European civilization now accessible to the 

 natives, ivory cannot be dispensed with in the manufacture of Eskimo 

 implements of the chase, its tusks have sometimes to be reimported 

 from Europe into Greenland. North of the glaciers of Melville Bay, 

 the hardy Arctic highlanders, aided by no kayak or rifle, but with a 

 manly self-reliance, enfeebled by no bastard civilization engrafted 

 upon their pristine savagedom, with their harpoon and allunaks 

 still boldly attack the Walrus as he lies huddled upon the ice 

 foot ; and thereby the native supplies to his family the food and 

 light which make tolerable the darkness of the long Arctic night of 

 Smith's Sound. The whalers kill a few annually, striking them, as 

 they do the Whale, with the gun-harpoon, and killing them with 



