BRITISH MAMMALS 
have seen him with tusks nearly 30 inches long ; his body not less 
than 18 feet. When of this size he certainly reminds you of the 
elephant more than any other living creature. . . . The instinct of 
attack which characterises the Walrus is interesting to the naturalist, as 
it is characteristic also of the land animals, the pachyderms, with which 
he is classed. When wounded he rises high out of the water, plunges 
heavily against the ice, and strives to raise himself with his fore-flippers upon 
its surface. As it breaks under his weight, his countenance assumes a 
still more vindictive expression, his bark changes to a roar, and the 
foam pours out of his jaws till it froths his beard. Even when not 
excited he manages his tusks bravely. They are so strong that he uses 
them to grapple the rocks with, and climbs steeps of ice and land 
which would be inaccessible to him without their aid. He ascends in 
this way rocky islands that are sixty and a hundred feet above the level 
of the sea ; and I have myself seen him in these elevated positions 
basking with his young in the cool sunshine of August and September." 
The same author describes their voice as " something 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." 
Around the breathing holes, which are made among much thicker ice 
than those of the seals, he observed numbers of broken clam-shells, and, 
in one instance some gravel, mingled with about half a peck of the 
coarse shingle of the beach. 
The natural increase of this species is slow, as only a single young 
one is born at a time, which according to Bell is suckled by the mother 
for nearly two years, so that a period of three or four seasons ensues 
between birth of the calves. By the time they are weaned their tusks have 
grown several inches in length, enabling them to forage for themselves. 
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