MAMMALS. 269 



One huuter told me of an instance in which he and a comiianion, both in kyaks, had an 

 encounter -with one of these animals. They were hunting among the drift ice off' Cape Vancouver 

 one day in spring, when his companion saw and killed a young Walrus without knowing that the old 

 one was about. A moment later the parent arose from the water and catching sight of them uttered 

 a hoarse, bellowing cry and swam rapidly towards them. Both hunters paddled for their lives to a 

 large piece of ice close by and landed upon it just in time to escape their pursuer. Here they were 

 kept prisoners nearly the entire day, and every time they tried to leave, thinking their enemy gone, 

 they were pursued and forced to return to the ice again. 



The people of Bering Straits often meet vicious Walruses at this season. In one instance 

 which came to my hearing a Walrus broke a hole in the top of a man's kyak with its tusks, but 

 the man escaped. ]Srumerous tales are told of their pursuing hunters. 



Along the Arctic coast of Alaska and Siberia they are numerous in summer, keeping with 

 the pack-ice and moving offshore with it. In Kotzebue Sound they are unknown or very rare, 

 but are taken in considerable numbers from Point Hope to Point Barrow. In autumn they all 

 leave this region and pass through Bering Straits, wintering along the southern edge of the pack- 

 ice in Bering Sea. While we were cruising along theedge of the ice-pack in the Arctic, north of 

 the straits, in July and August, 1881, we frequently saw large numbers of Walruses upon the ice 

 lying in bunches, which are called "i)ods" by the whalers aud walrus-hunters. 



The hearing of these animals is so defective that a man can creep up on the leeward of a 

 "pod," and if he kills the animal on guard at the first shot he may then ijroceed to kill the entire 

 lot, as they do not heed the report of the gun in the least. A gun carrying a 4o-caliber ball is often 

 used, but a 50-caliber is better for this work. A shot striking the nape so as to enter the base of 

 the skull or to shatter some of the cervical vertebrae is almost the only one which is instantaneously 

 fatal, owing to the thickness of the skull in front and on the sides and the animal's tenacity of life. 

 Their sense of smell is claimed to be very acute, and the hunters are careful to approach them from 

 the leeward side. When basking on the ice they keep near the water and tumble clumsily in at 

 the first alarm. 



As we coasted along the north Siberian shore in July a number of them were seen as we 

 steamed along the edge of the pack. They were all on small ice-cakes, and as we drew near they 

 would raise their heads and gaze at us a moment and then slide bacliwards off the ice and disappear 

 in the most amusing manner. 



We saw many female's with their young in various parts of the Arctic during July and August, 

 and the jealous watchfulness of the mothers was noticeable. The young nearly always swam 

 directly in front of its parent, and in diving the latter carried the little one down by resting her 

 tusks on its shoulders and forcing it under the water. An adult male measured by Mr. Elliott on 

 Walrus Island was nearly 13 feet long with a girth of 14 feet about the shoulders. 



When the Eussiaus first occupied the Fur Seal Islands the walrus was very numerous there, 

 but the seal-hunters soon drove them from Saint Paul and Saint George. On Walrus Island they 

 were not troubled, and Mr. Elliott found a herd of about five hundred bulls in possession there up 

 to 1874; since then they have greatly diminished in numbers there, and will eventually entirely 

 disappear. Their skin is a mottled yellowish-brown, with very short, rough bristles scattered over 

 it. It is wrinkled into folds all about the neck and shoulders. The animal's posteriors are dispro- 

 portionately small as comi^ared with the anterior half of the body. The males exceed the females 

 in size and reach a ton or more in weight. 



The tusks of the female are long and slender and are usually curved inward so that the points 

 nearly touch. The tusks of the males are shorter and stouter, with the ends several inches apart. 

 The largest pair of tusks I ever saw weighed 10 pounds, and they were far larger than the average. 



The tusks are used in digging clams, also to aid them in climbing upon the ice or to land on a 

 rocky shore, and in their battles are used as effective weapons. From the paunch of a walrus 

 Elliott took over a bushel of clams, many of which were not crushed. 



I have heard the walrus-hunters say that these animals, when on shore, often keep guard by 

 gathering in a body, and then as the leader falls asleep his head drops and he prods the next 

 animal with his tusks; as the latter falls asleep he repeats the performance, and so there is one of 

 the animals continuously on the alert. 



