ARCTIC WALRUS. 
325 
fifteen hundred to two thousand pounds, producing 
according to their size from one to two barrels of oil, 
which is boiled out of the fat between the skin and 
the flesh. Immediately on their arrival the females 
calve. They carry their young about nine months, 
and never more than two at a time ; seldom more 
than one. 
“ The echoueries are formed principally by na- 
ture, being a gradual slope of soft rock, with which 
the Magdalene islands abound, about eighty or a 
hundred yards wide at the water-side, and spreading, 
so as to contain near the summit a very large num- 
ber of these animals. Here they are suffered to come 
on shore, and amuse themselves for a considerable 
time, till they acquire a degree of boldness, being 
at their first landing so exceedingly timid as to make 
it impossible for any person to approach them. 
ee In a few weeks they assemble in great multi- 
tudes; formerly, when undisturbed by the Americans, 
to the amount of seven or eight thousand. The 
form of the echouerie not allowing them to remain 
contiguous to the water, the foremost are insensibly 
pushed above the slope. When they are arrived at 
a convenient distance, the hunters, being provided 
with a spear sharp on one side, like a knife, with 
which they cut their throats, take advantage of a 
side wind, or a breeze blowing obliquely upon the 
shore, to prevent the animals from smelling them, 
because they have that sense in great perfection. 
Having landed, the hunters, with the assistance of 
good dogs trained for that purpose, in the night- 
