410 
THE STORY OF THE WALRUS. 
ered a herd of walruses, numbering, as they calculated, from three to four 
thousand, reposing upon it. Four boats’ crews, or sixteen men, proceeded 
to the attack with spears. One great mass of walruses lay in a small sandy 
bay, with rocks inclosing it on each side, and on a little mossy flat above the 
bay, but to which the bay formed the only convenient access for such 
unwieldy animals. A great many hundreds lay on other parts of the island 
at a little distance. The boats landed a little way off, so as not to frighten 
them, and the sixteen men, creeping along shore, got between the sea and 
the bay, full of walruses before mentioned, and immediately commenced 
stabbing the animals next them. The walrus, although so active and fierce 
in water, is very unwieldy and helpless on shore, and those in front soon 
succumbed to the lances of their assailants; the passage to the shore soon 
got so blocked up with the dead and dying that the unfortunate wretches 
could not pass over, and were in a manner barricaded by a wall of carcases. 
The slaughter went on until the men were drenched with blood and thor¬ 
oughly exhausted, while their lances became so blunt as to be useless. After 
returning to the ship to refresh themselves and grind their lances, the work 
of destruction was, however, resumed, and did not cease until upwards of 
nine hundred animals had been slain. Even then, however, so sluggish and 
lethargic were the walruses, that several hundreds were still lying on 
adjacent parts of the island. When I visited the spot six years later the 
carcases were still lying as they fell, in some instances two or three feet deep, 
and the stench from them was perceptible for miles out at sea. The worst 
feature of this great slaughter was, indeed, the circumstance that the perpe¬ 
trators, owing to the size of their vessels, were only able to carry away a 
small proportion of their victims. 
