64 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



a walrus lands, others are sure to follow ; and when the first comers block the 

 shore, those which arrive later, instead of landing on a free spot farther on, 

 prefer giving their friends who are in the waj a gentle push with their tusks 

 so as to induce them to make room. 



Timorous and almost helpless on land, where, in spite of its formidable 

 tusks, it falls an easy prey to the attacks of man, the walrus evinces a greater 

 degree of courage in the water, where it is able to make a better use of the 

 strength and weapons bestowed upon it by nature. Many instances are known 

 where walruses, which never attack but when provoked, have turned upon their 

 assailants, or have even assembled from a distance to assist a wounded com- 

 rade. 



Like the seals, the walrus is easily tamed, and of a most affectionate temper. 

 This was shown in a remarkable manner by a young walrus brought alive from 

 Archangel to St. Petersburg in 1829. Its keeper, Madame Dennebecq, having 

 tended it with the greatest care, the grateful animal expressed its pleasure 

 w^henever she came near it by an affectionate grunt. It not only followed her 

 with its eyes, but was never happier than when allowed to lay its head in her 

 lap. The tenderness was reciprocal, and Madame Dennebecq used to talk of 

 her walrus with the same warmth of affection as if it had been a pet lapdog. 



That parental love should be highly developed in animals thus susceptible 

 of friendship may easily be imagined. Mr. Lamont, an English gentleman 

 whom the love of sport led a few years since to Spitzbergen, relates the case of 

 a wounded walrus who held a very young calf under her right arm. When- 

 ever the harpoon was raised against it, the mother carefully shielded it with 

 her own body. The countenance of this poor animal was never to be forgot- 

 ten : that of the calf expressive of abject terror, and yet of such a boundless 

 confidence in its mother's power of protecting it, as it swam along under her 

 wing, and the old cow's face showing such reckless defiance for all that could 

 be done to herself, and yet such terrible anxiety as to the safety of her calf. 

 This parental affection is shamefully misused by man, for it is a common 

 artifice of the walrus-hunters to catch a young animal and make it grunt, in 

 order to attract a herd. 



The walrus is confined to the coasts of the Arctic regions, unless when drift- 

 ice, or some other accident, carries it away into the open sea. Its chief resorts 

 are Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, North Greenland, the shores of Hudson's and 

 Bafiin's bays ; and on the opposite side of the Polar Ocean, tlie coasts of Ber- 

 ing's Sea, and to the north of Bering's Straits, the American and Asiatic shores 

 from Point Barrow to Cape North. It has nowhere been found on the coasts 

 of Siberia from the mouth of the Jenisei to the last-mentioned promontory, 

 and on those of America from Point Barrow to Lancaster Sound ; so that it 

 inhabits two distinct regions, separated from each other by vast extents of 

 coast. Its food seems to consist principally of marine plants and shell-fish, 

 though Scoresby relates that he found the remains of fishes, or even of seals, in 

 its stomach. 



As the Polar bear is frequently found above a hundred miles from the near- 

 est land, upon loose ice steadily drifting into the sea, it seems but fair to assign 



