111.] 
WALRUS CHARACTERISTICS. 
157 
hunters formerly considered an unpardonable piece of thought¬ 
lessness, because the animal was in this way generally wounded 
or killed without any advantage accruing. They therefore 
expressed themselves with great irritation against the tourists who 
sometimes came to Spitzbergen, and in this way destroyed the 
hunting. It cannot however be denied that they themselves in 
recent times have often followed the bad example, and many 
consider that this is one of the main reasons of the great dim¬ 
inution in the numbers of the walrus of late years. Should 
an international code be established for hunting in the Polar sea, 
all shooting of unharpooned walruses ought to be forbidden in 
the first place. 
Gregariousness and curiosity appear to be the main charac¬ 
teristics of the walrus. These qualities of theirs I had an 
opportunity of observing when once, on a glorious northern 
summer day, I rowed forward over a mirror-bright, drift-ice- 
bestrewn sea right into the midst of a considerable herd of 
these animals. Part followed the boat long distances quite 
peaceably, now and then emitting a grunting sound ; others 
swam quite close, and raised themselves high out of the water 
in order to take a view of the foreigners; others, again, lay 
so closely packed on pieces of drift-ice as to sink them down 
to the water’s edge, while their comrades swimming about 
in the sea endeavoured with violence to gain a place on the 
already overfilled resting-places, though a number of unoccupied 
pieces of ice floated up and down in the neighbourhood. 
When the hunters have killed a female walrus, it often 
happens that they take the young living. It is easily 
tamed, and soon regards its keeper with warm attachment. It 
seeks, as best it can—poorly equipped as it is for moving about 
on dry land—to follow the seamen on the deck, and gives 
itself no rest if it be left alone. Unfortunately, one does not 
succeed in keeping them long alive, probably because it is 
impossible to provide them with suitable food. There are 
