102 
MAMMALIA. 
of sailors without attempting to escape ; so that in half a day pro- 
digious numbers of them could he destroyed. Gmelin states that 
some Englishmen killed from 700 to 800 of them in the space of six 
hours, in 1705 ; and, three years afterwards, 900 in the space of 
seven hours. In 1640, a captain of a ship, of the name of Kykyrez, 
killed so many, that his fortune was made in one single campaign. 
This is how the Walruses were obtained. The crew made 
a descent upon the shore, and cut olf their retreat while they lay 
stretched out unsuspectingly at some distance ; having done so, they 
advanced and pierced them through with their lances. A fearful 
massacre followed ; as the carcasses fell, they were heaped up in a 
long line, and thus formed a sort of embankment, against which 
rig 25. — A massacre of Morses. 
those which were trying to escape came and exhausted their 
strength ; the whole troop were thus knocked down and killed. 
How- a- days the same manoeuvre very rarely succeeds. Having 
learnt a lesson from experience, the Morses keep together in bands 
more or less numerous on the rocks and icebergs ; they go but a 
very small distance from the sea, so as to be able to plunge into it 
on the least alarm, and they place sentinels during their sleep, so 
as not to be taken by surprise. Generally, it is necessary to take 
to the boats, to row after them, and harpoon them in the 
water. But, as we have said, this operation is extremely dan- 
gerous, for when wounded they become furious ; they surround 
the boat in which are their pursuers, and in their desperate efforts 
try to capsize it (Fig. 26). It takes many a boat-hook, harpoon 
and gun, adroitly used, to repel the assailants. 
