TRICHECHIDA 599 
April and June, usually but one at a time, never more than two. 
Their strong affection for their young, and their sympathy for each 
other in times of danger, have been particularly noticed by all who 
have had the opportunity of observing them in their native haunts. 
When one of their number is wounded, the whole herd usually 
join in a concerted and intelligent defence. Although harmless and 
inoffensive when not molested, they exhibit considerable fierceness 
when attacked, using their great tusks with tremendous effect 
either on human enemies who come into too close quarters or on 
Polar Bears, the only other adversaries they can meet with in their 
own natural territory. Their voice is a loud roaring, and can be 
heard at a great distance; it is described by Dr. Kane as “some- 
thing between the mooing of a cow and the deepest baying of a 
mastiff, very round and full, with its bark or detached notes repeated 
rather quickly seven or nine times in succession.” 
The principal food of the Walrus consists of bivalved molluscs, 
especially Mya truncata and Sawxicava rugosa, two species very 
abundant in the Arctic regions, which it digs up from the mud 
and sand in which they lie buried at the bottom of the sea by 
means of its tusks. It crushes and removes the shells by the aid 
of its grinding teeth and tongue, swallowing only the soft part 
of the animal. It also feeds on other molluscs, sand-worms, 
star-fishes, and shrimps. Portions of various kinds of alge or 
sea-weeds have been found in its stomach, but whether swallowed 
intentionally or not is still doubtful. 
The commercial products of the Walrus are its oil, hide (used to 
manufacture harness and sole-leather and twisted into tiller ropes), 
and tusks. The ivory of the latter is, however, inferior in quality 
to that of the Elephant. Its flesh forms an important article of 
food to the Eskimo and Tchuktchis. Of the coast tribes of the 
last-named people the Walrus forms the chief means of support. 
“The flesh supplies them with food, the ivory tusks are made into 
implements used in the chase and for other domestic purposes, as 
well as affording a valuable article of barter, and the skin furnishes 
the material for covering their summer habitations, harness for their 
dog-teams, and lines for their fishing gear ” (Scammon). 
Geographically the Walrus is confined to the northern circum- 
polar regions of the globe, extending apparently as far north as 
explorers have penetrated, but its southern range has been much 
restricted of late in consequence of the persecutions of man. On the 
Atlantic coast of America it was met with in the sixteenth century as 
low as the southern coast of Nova Scotia, and in the last century it was 
common in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and on the shores of Labrador. 
It still inhabits the coast round Hudson’s Bay, Davis Straits, and 
Greenland, where, however, its numbers are daily decreasing. It 
is not found on the Arctic coast of America between the 97th and 
