338 



THE SEA-HORSE. 



are converted into water-proof clothing, while 

 the soles to its flippers are transferred to his 

 feet; and, finally, its ivory is a source of end- 

 less utility to him in domestic use and in 

 trade and barter. 



Walrus famines among the Esquimaux j 

 have been recorded in pathetic legends by 

 almost all of the savage settlements in the 

 Arctic. Even now, as I write (November, j 

 1880), comes the authentic corroboration 1 

 of the harsh rumor of the starvation of the 

 inhabitants of St. Lawrence Island — those 

 people who live just midway between the Old 

 World and the New, in Alaskan waters. The 

 winter of 1879-80 was one of exceptional 

 rigor in the Arctic, though in this country 

 it was unusually mild and open. The ice 

 closed in solid around St. Lawrence Island 

 — so firm and unshaken by the mighty powers 

 of wind and tide that the walrus were driven 

 far to the southward and eastward, out of 

 reach of the unhappy inhabitants of that 

 island, who, thus unexpectedly deprived of 

 their mainstay and support, seem to have 

 miserably starved to death, with the excep- 

 tion of one small village on the north shore. 

 The residents of the Poonook,' Poogovell- 

 yak, and Kagallegak settlements perished, 

 oj a soul, from hunger — nearly three hun- 

 dred men, women, and children. I was 

 among these people in 1874, during the 

 month of August, and remarked their mani- 

 fold superiority over the savages of the north- 

 west coast and the great plains. They 

 seemed then to live, during nine months of 

 the year, almost wholly upon the flesh and 

 oil of the walrus. Clean-limbed, bright-eyed, 

 and jovial, they profoundly impressed one : 



with their happy subsistence and reliance 

 upon the walrus-herds of Behring Sea ; and 

 it was remarked then that these people had 

 never been subjected to the temptation — 

 and subsequent sorrow — of putting their 

 trust in princes; hence their independence 

 and good heart. But now it appears that 

 it will not suftice, either, to put your trust 

 in walrus. 



Walrus naturally occupy a large place 

 in the spiritual horizon of the Esquimaux ; 

 his whole idea of paradise is bound up 

 in finding walrus by countless herds in 

 the spirit land, which in itself, however, 

 does not differ at all from the one he now 

 lives on, except that there he will be uni- 

 formly successful in the chase, and always 

 sure of meat to eat day in and day out. 

 When the writer attempted to argue with 

 one of these people that we could get along 

 very well in the next world without these 

 unsavory animals, the emphatic response 

 was : " Without walrus there is no heaven ! " 



In view of the unremitting warfare waged 

 upon the walrus-herds of northern Europe, 

 it is most likely that the sandy shoals and 

 muddy bars of Bristol Bay, Behring Sea, are 

 now the chosen resort of the largest congre- 

 gations of these animals. When the ice- 

 pack closes in solid above the straits between 

 Asia and America, then the great mass of 

 the walrus, which have been spending the 

 summer on the broken ice-floes, engaged 

 principally in breeding, return to the open 

 waters of Bristol Bay and Norton Sound, 

 where they spend the winter, scattered in 

 herds from a dozen or so in number up to 

 bodies of thousands ; living in perfect peace 



