The name of sea-cow, by which the walrus (_fig. 193._) is most
generally known, has been very wrongly applied,[G] since the animal it
denotes has not the least resemblance to a cow: the denomination of
sea-elephant, which others have given it is much better imagined, as
it is founded on a singular and very apparent character. The walrus,
like the elephant, has two large ivory tusks which shoot from the upper
jaw; and its head would entirely resemble that of the elephant if it
had a trunk; the walrus, however, not only wants that instrument, which
serves the elephant as an arm and hand, but it is deprived of the use
of its arms and legs; those members being, like those of the seal, shut
up within the skin, so that nothing appears outwardly but its hands
and feet. Its body is long and tapering, thickest towards the neck,
decreasing by degrees, and is entirely covered with a short hair. The
fingers, or toes, of the hands and feet, are covered with a membrane,
and terminated by short and sharp-pointed claws. On each side of
the mouth are large bristles in the form of whiskers; the tongue is
hollowed, and the concha of the ears are wanting, so that, excepting
the two great tusks, and the want of the cutting teeth both above and
below, the walrus perfectly resembles the seal, only being much larger
and stronger; the walrus is commonly from twelve to sixteen feet in
length, and eight or nine in circumference; whereas the largest seals
are not more than seven or eight feet. The former generally frequent
the same places as the seals are known to reside in, and they are
almost always found together. They have the same habitudes in every
respect: but there are fewer varieties of the walrus than of the seal;
and they are more attached to one particular climate, being rarely
found except in the northern seas, so that the seal might be known to
the ancients, but the walrus could not.
[Footnote G: Perhaps this name, as well as that of _sea-calf_, has
been given because the one and the other have a cry which very much
resembles the lowing of a cow and of a calf. _Ipsis_ (says Pliny,
speaking of the sea-calf) _in somne mugitus, unde nomen vituli_.]
Most travellers who have visited the northern seas of Asia, Europe,
and America, have mentioned this animal; but Zorgdrager seems to have
spoken most clearly on this subject, for which reason I shall subjoin
a translation of his remarks, which were communicated to me by the
Marquis de Montmirail.
"There was formerly great plenty of the walrus and seals in the bays
of Horisont and Kloch, but at present there are very few. Both of them
quit the water in the summer, and resort to the neighbouring plains,
where they are sometimes seen in troops of from eighty to two hundred,
particularly the walrus, who will remain there several days together,
till hunger obliges them to return to the sea. This animal externally
resembles the seal, but he is stronger and much larger.[H] Like the
seals they have five toes to each paw, but their claws are shorter,
and their head shorter and rounder. The skin of the walrus is an inch
thick, wrinkled, and covered with very short hair of different colours.
His upper jaw is armed with two tusks, about half an ell, or an ell in
length, which are hollow at the root, and become larger as the animal
grows in years. Some of them are found to have but one tusk, the other
being torn out in fighting with each other, or falling out through
age. This ivory generally sells for a greater price than that of the
elephant, as it is of a more compact and harder substance. His mouth
is like that of the ox, and furnished with hairs which are hollow,
pointed, and about the thickness of a straw. Above the mouth are two
nostrils, through which these animals spout water like a whale, without
however making much noise. Their eyes are red, sparking and inflamed
during the summer, at which season the water making too powerful an
impression on them, they stay more willingly on shore than at any other
time. They are in great numbers about Spitzbergen. They are killed
with lances, and the profit derived from their teeth and fat fully
repays the trouble; for their oil is almost as much valued as that
of the whale. Their two teeth are worth as much as all the oil they
produce, and are preferred even to ivory. An ordinary sized tooth will
weigh three pounds, and in which case the two will sell for eighteen
florins, about the value of half a ton of oil, which is commonly drawn
from one of them; so that the animal may be said to be worth six and
thirty florins. Formerly great numbers of these animals were seen upon
land; but the vessels which every year resort to those seas for the
whale fishery, have so frightened them, that they are now retired to
more sequestered places; and those that remain no longer go on shore
in troops, but either continue in the water, or disperse themselves
on different parts of the ice. When the hunter comes near a walrus,
whether in the water, or on the ice, he darts a very strong harpoon
at him, which, though made expressly for the purpose, often slips over
his hard and thick skin; but if it penetrate, they haul the animal
with the rope annexed towards the boat, kill him with a very sharp and
strong lance, and afterwards tow him to the nearest shore or flat piece
of ice; there flay him, and throw his skin away, as it is of no manner
of use[I]hey then separate the teeth with a hatchet, or sometimes
cut off the head and boil it to prevent the teeth from receiving any
injury; the blubber being cut into long slices, is barrelled up and
carried on board the vessels. The walrus is generally heavier than the
ox, and as difficult to pursue as the whale; the skin of the latter is
also more easily pierced, for a strong and sharp lance is often darted
several times at the walrus without penetrating his thick skin. For
this reason they always endeavour to wound him in those parts where the
skin appears tight, and even take aim at his eyes; the animal, obliged
by this motion to turn his head, exposes his breast or throat to the
hunter, who immediately strikes in that part, and draws the lance out
again as quick as possible, for fear the animal should seize it with
his teeth and wound those that attack him either with his teeth or the
lance, which sometimes happens. However, an attack seldom lasts long
on the ice, for the walrus, whether wounded or not, soon plunges into
the sea; consequently the hunters rather attack him upon land. These
animals are now rarely found but in the least frequented countries, as
the isle of Moffen, at the back of Worland, in the neighbourhood of
Horisont and Kloch bays, and other secluded and more distant places;
they also take the precaution to sleep on banks of sand, where ships
dare not approach them. Those that are met with, instructed by the
persecutions they have so often experienced, are so much on their
guard, that they always keep pretty near to the water, and immediately
plunge in on being approached. I experienced this fact myself, having
met with a troop of thirty or forty on the great sand bank at the back
of Worland, some of which were quite close to the water, and others
at no great distance from it. We waited some hours before we went
ashore, in hopes they would advance further on the plain, but as this
stratagem did not succeed according to our wishes, we went on board
our boats, and landed to the right and left of them; but we had no
sooner set foot on shore, than they all plunged into the water, and
dived to the bottom, therefore the most we were able to accomplish was
the wounding of a few. Before these animals were so greatly persecuted,
they advanced a good way upon the land, so that when it was high tide,
they were at a great distance from the sea; and at low water being at
a still greater, they were easily attacked. The hunters would then
land, and march up in their front to cut off their retreat to the sea,
and which they permitted with indifference; when thus assailed, each
hunter generally killed one before they could regain the water; and
after they had killed several, they made a kind of barrier of their
dead bodies, leaving some of the men in ambush to slay those that
remained; and in this manner three or four hundred were often killed.
The prodigious quantity of bones spread over the shores, sufficiently
prove how numerous these animals were in former times. When wounded
they become extremely furious. They sometimes seize the lances, and
break them in pieces with their teeth; or tear them out of the hands of
their enemies, and at last, full of rage, put their head betwixt their
paws, or fins, and in this manner roll into the sea. When there is a
great number of them together, they are so bold as to attack the boats
that pursue them, bite the boats with their teeth, and exert all their
strength to pierce or overturn them."
[Footnote H: This must be understood only of the common seal, for the
large species of this animal is considerably greater in its dimensions
than the walrus.]
[Footnote I: Apparently, Zorgdrager was ignorant that a very good hide
is made of the skin of this animal. I have seen coach-harnesses made
of them which were very firm and tough. _Hist. of Greenland_; and
even at present the skins of the walrus form an important part of the
exportation from the coast of Labrador.]
By adding to these observations of Zorgdrager those which are in the
Collection of Voyages to the North, and what are scattered in other
accounts, we have a tolerably complete history of this animal. By these
relations we find that this species was formerly much more diffused
than at present; they were found in the seas of the temperate zones,
in the Gulph of Canada, on the coasts of Acadia, &c. but they are at
present confined to the frozen zones, and even in those there are but
few in any of those parts which are frequented. There are very few
in the Frozen Seas of Europe, and still less in those of Greenland,
Davis's Straights, and other parts of North America, the whale fishery
having disturbed and driven them away. Towards the end of the 16th
century the inhabitants of St. Malo found them in great numbers in
the Ramée islands; and it is not a hundred years since the merchants
of Port-Royal thought it worth sending to Cape Sable and Cape Fourchu
to hunt these animals, but they have now entirely forsaken those
climates, and are only to be found in great numbers in the frozen
sea of Asia, from the mouth of the Oby to the eastern point of that
continent; they are seldom seen in the temperate, and those found in
the torrid zone are of a different species; they seem averse from the
southern seas, and therefore are not met with towards the south pole,
although the great and small seals of the north are there in great
plenty.
We find, however, that the walrus can live, at least for some time, in
a temperate climate. Edward Worst speaks of having seen one alive in
England, which was three months old; that it was put in water for a
short time only each day, and that it went upon the ground. He does not
say the heat of the air incommoded it, but, on the contrary, that when
it was touched it had the appearance of a robust and furious animal,
and that it had a very strong respiration through its nostrils. This
young walrus was about the size of a calf, and very much like a seal.
Its head was round, its eyes large, its nostrils flat and black, which
it opened and shut at pleasure. It had no external ears, but only two
auditory passages. The mouth was small, and the upper jaw was furnished
with whiskers of thick, rough, and cartilaginous hairs; the lower
jaw was triangular, the tongue thick and short, and each side of the
mouth armed on the inside with flat teeth. The feet were broad, and the
hind part of the body perfectly resembled that of a seal. It might be
rather said to crawl with this hind part than to walk; the fore-feet
were turned forward, and the hind ones backward; they were all divided
into five toes, and covered with a strong membrane. The skin was thick,
hard, and covered with a short, soft, ash-coloured hair. This animal
grunted like a boar, and sometimes cried with a deep and strong voice.
It was brought from Nova Zembla, and had not any tusks, but on the
upper jaw there appeared two knobs, from whence in time they would
arise. It was fed with a sort of gruel made of barley or oat-meal. It
followed its master when he offered it food, but always with a seeming
reluctance, as it grunted all the time, and would sometimes growl at
him with a degree of fury.
This account, which gives a tolerably just idea of the walrus, evinces
that it can live in a temperate climate; however there is no appearance
of its being able to endure a strong heat, nor of its having ever
passed from one pole to the other. Several travellers have spoken of
certain sea-cows they saw in India, but those were of a different
species. The walrus is easily distinguished by its long tusks, a
character which we find peculiar to that and the elephant.
The genital member of the male has a large bone like the whale. The
female brings forth in winter upon land, or on the shoals of ice, and
seldom produces more than one, which when born is about the size of
a hog of a year old. We do not know how long this animal goes with
young, but if we judge by the time of their growth and size, we must
suppose it to be upwards of nine months. The walrus cannot continue in
the water for a long time together, but is obliged to come on shore to
suckle its young, and for other occasions. When they are obliged to
climb up steep shores, or large pieces of ice, they make use of their
teeth and hands to hold by, and drag along the heavy masses of their
bodies. They are said to feed upon the shell-fish which are at the
bottom of the sea, and to grub them up with their strong tusks. Others
assert that they live on a sea-herb with broad leaves, and that they
eat neither flesh nor fish. But I imagine all these opinions have but
a weak foundation, it being probable that the walrus, like the seal,
lives on prey, especially on herrings, and other small fish, for he
does not eat at all when upon land, and it is chiefly hunger which
obliges him to return to the sea.