162 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. hi. 
repeated in a more or less altered form even by Olaus Magnus, 
whose representation of the walrus is shown by the accompanying 
woodcut. 
The of August 1556, the year after the publication of the 
work of Olaus Magnus, a West European saw for the first time 
some actual walruses, which had been killed by Kussian hunters 
at Vaygats Island. No description of the animal, however, 
is given, but from that period all the members of the English 
and Dutch north-east expeditions had opportunities of seeing 
walruses in hundreds and thousands. It was now first that man 
learned actually to know this remarkable animal which had 
been decked out in so many fables. To this period belongs the 
beautiful and natural delineation of the walrus which is given 
above. 
A peculiarity of the walrus may be mentioned here. The 
hide, especially in old males, is often full of wounds and scratches, 
which appear to be caused partly by combats and scraping 
against sharp pieces of ice, partly by some severe disease of the 
skin. Mr. H. W. Elliot has remarked this of the walrus in 
Behring’s Sea.^ The walrus is also troubled with lice, which 
is not the case, so far as I know, with any kind of seal. 
Masses of intestinal worms are found instead in the stomach 
of the seal, while on the contrary none are found in that 
of the walrus. 
With reference to the other animals that are hunted in the 
Polar Sea I am compelled to be very brief, as I have scarcely 
any observations to make regarding them which are not already 
sufficiently known by numerous writings. 
There are three kinds of seals on Novaya Zemlya. Storsaelen, 
the bearded seal {PJioca barbata^ Fabr.) occurs pretty generally 
even on the coasts of Spitzbergen, though never in large flocks. 
The pursuit of this animal is the most important part of the 
^ A Report upon the Condition of Affairs in the Territory of Alaska. 
Wasliington, 1875, p. 160. 
