Arctic Animals 101 
Proximity to land and in shallow water is the 
spot chosen by the walrus as its habitat. 
Here it brings forth its young, usually one 
at a birth, and is able to dredge on the 
bottom of the sea for its food, which consists 
largely of shell-fish. The chief uses of the 
formidable tusks are four: In the first place 
to scrape up the bottom to obtain food; 
secondly, when lying on its back in the water, 
by their aid the animal is able to knock holes 
through thin ice, and so clamber out; thirdly, 
as very formidable weapons of offence in 
fighting; and last of all, to enable the walrus 
to scramble out of the water upon ice or land, 
and as propelling agents in walking. 
The walrus is an animal of considerable 
amount of intelligence—far more so than the 
polar bear. He has a well-shaped head and 
a large brain-cavity. At our hut on Cape 
Flora, Franz Josef Land, we had two juvenile 
walruses, whose weight, although only a few 
weeks old, was nearly thirteen and a-half stones each. These two little animals soon 
eot to know us, and one of them, although a bad walker, even tried to follow me 
about the plateau near the hut. We fed them on condensed milk, and for some time 
they did well, but eventually died on their way home to the Zoo. 
Walruses, bulls especially, are animals that love a fight and will go a long way 
out of their course to have one. In the water they are most dangerous antagonists, 
and with their powerful tusks, enormous weight and great strength, will quickly reduce 
a boat to matchwood. On ice or land, owimg to their want of mobility, they are 
harmless in dealing with an ordinarily active man with space to move about. 
It is a common sight to see eight or ten 
walruses lying asleep on small detached pieces 
of floating ice, idly drifting with the tide. 
They then look much like large leeches, and 
the photograph on page 159 gives a good idea 
of their appearance. They are, too, quite at 
home in the water, and the photograph in 
question shows a young walrus raising his 
head above the water to look about him. 
The appearance of small heaps of pebbles 
and shells on the ice-floes in the neighbour- 
hood where walruses have been lying is some- 
what puzzling at first. These stones have, 
however, been swallowed by these animals 
either accidentally in gathering up bivalves and 
other shell-fish from the bottom of the sea, or 
deliberately to aid digestion, and then ejected 
by the contraction of the stomach after that 
act has been performed. 
There are several varieties of the Arctic PuotaTaan SE RRaAIS 
Hox, and these differ in colouring. ‘The creature WHITE POLAR WOLF. 
aS ws =X 
Photograph by E. J. Beck. 
REINDEER, 
