THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
457 
They lie, in herds of many hundreds, upon the ice; 
huddling one over the other like fwine ; and roar or bray 
very loud; fo that, in the night, or in foggy weather, they 
gave us notice of the vicinity of the ice, before we could fee 
it. We never found the whole herd afleep; fome being al¬ 
ways upon the watch. Thefe, on the approach of the boat, 
would wake thofe next to them; and the alarm being thus 
gradually communicated, the whole herd would be awake 
prefently. But they were feldom in a hurry to get away, till 
after they had been once fired at. Then they would tumble 
one over the other, into the fea, in the utmoft confufion. 
And, if we did not, at the firft difcharge, kill thofe we fired 
at, we generally loft them, though mortally wounded. 
They did not appear to us to be that dangerous animal fome 
authors have defcribed; not even when attacked. They 
are rather more fo, to appearance, than in reality. Vaft 
numbers of them would follow, and come clofe up to the 
boats. But the flafli of a mufquet in the pan, or even the 
bare pointing of one at them, would fend them down in an 
inftant. The female will defend the young one to the very 
laft, and at the expence of her own life, whether in the wa¬ 
ter, or upon the ice. Nor will the young one quit the dam, 
though fhe be dead; fo that, if you kill one, you are fure of 
the other. The dam, when in the water, holds the young- 
one between her fore-fins. 
Mr. Pennant, in his Synopfis ^iiadr. p. 335 *, has given a 
very good defcription of this animal under the name of 
Arctic Walrus ; but I have no where feen a good drawing 
* Mr. Pennant, fmce Captain Cook wrote this, has defcribed this animal in a new 
work, which he calls Arciic Zoology, now ready for publication. We have been favoured 
with his obliging communications on this, and other particulars; and, therefore, refer the 
reader to the Arftic Zoology , N° 72. 
Vol. II. 3 N of 
*778. 
Auguft. 
