■WALRUS HIDE AND BLUBBER. 71 



in. Hammerfest is from one to two dollars a 

 skin. 



The walrus has not nearly so mudh blubber, 

 in proportion to his size, as the seal ; thus a 

 seal of 600 lbs. will carry 200 or 250 lbs. of 

 fat ; an ordinary walrus may weight 2000 lbs., 

 but his fat will not exceed that of the seal ; a 

 full sized old bull walrus must weigh, at least, 

 3000 lbs., and such a walrus will produce, if 

 very fat, 650 lbs. of blubber, but seldom more 

 than 500 lbs., which latter was, T think, about 

 the maximum quantity yielded by the most 

 obese of our victims. Neither does the fat of 

 the walrus afford so fine an oil as that of the 

 seal, but it is usual to mix them indiscrimi- 

 nately together, and the compound is always 

 exported into Southern Europe under the 

 name of seal-oil. 



We begin to find some of these long, dreary, 

 foggy days intolerably irksome, as our cabin is 

 singularly ill-adapted for passing much idle time 

 in ; it is literally almost impossible either to sit, 

 stand up, or lie down in it ; it is only five feet 

 high, except where a smaU. dingy sky-light three 

 feet square gives us the advantage of another 

 foot ; there is a " bunk " on each side of about 

 5^x 2^ — and one can hardly be said to be lying 



V 4 



