The brain is largely developed, and has many sinuosities, so that in comparison with the Dog or Cat tribes the Walrus ought to possess considerable intelligence. Acts displaying this quality, however, are only sparingly manifested in the young where domestication has been attempted.
A surgeon who accompanied one of the Dundee sealers relates how a juvenile Walrus, being captured, became in a few days quite at home, and a general favourite among the crew. It quickly formed a friendship with an Eskimo Dog which was on board. They ate out of the same dish, although “Jamie,” the Walrus, took good care always to secure the larger share. Whenever the Dog retired to his barrel to sleep, “Jamie” bundled his own fat carcass right on the top of him, and as doggie rebelled against such an unwieldly bedfellow it usually ended in “Jamie” having it all to himself. The latter ate blubber, beef, pork, and almost everything given him, but his favourite dish was pea-soup. Into this he would plunge his face, which procedure left him a most comical countenance. He seemed to know his name well, for even if fast asleep the instant any one cried out “Jamie!” he would rouse up, gaze anxiously about, grunt, grunting in reply. But the most remarkable trait in his character was an intense hatred of solitude. When alone on deck he appeared a picture of misery, grunting and endeavouring to make his way down “’tween deck” after the men; and on more than one occasion precipitated himself, to his peril, plump down the main hatchway, a height of about nine feet. If the cabin-door were open he at once waddled in, laid himself before the stove, and went to sleep; but if the cabin were empty he would not remain a moment. Nothing made him so angry as to shake a piece of paper in his face, or to run suddenly away after caressing him; he then followed with open mouth in a great passion. When a Whale had been killed, and the ship’s crew busy on deck, “Jamie” was in his glory in the very midst of the men covered with grease and oil. At these times he was a perfect nuisance, hindering the men in their duties by continually poking his head first between one seaman’s legs and then another’s, and so on, meantime running a chance of being cut down in the “flensing” operations. He evinced no particular attachment to any one individual on board, liking all equally from cabin-boy to captain. But he knew full well when he did anything wrong; for if a rope’s-end were shown him in a threatening manner, “Jamie” instantly would slink off, furtively casting a look over his shoulder to see if he were followed. After being on board four months he fell ill and died. The expression of this creature’s countenance during his sickness was indicative of a great desire for sympathy from any one who came near. He took his medicine to the last, and when his remains were committed to the deep, regret was felt by all on board.
WALRUSES ON THE ICE.
The Walrus, unlike the Sea Lions, is believed to be monogamous. It is known, however, that in the islands of Behring’s Strait the female gives birth at nine months to a single young one, usually on the ice-floes. The Seals show a remarkable change in the colour of their coat at different periods of their life; but the young Walrus resembles its parents, though it has no tusks, these not protruding to any great extent for two years after its birth. The young evidently suckle their mother up to the period just mentioned, and this seems necessary, because in the absence of tusks the former are unable to procure the shell-fish and other nourishment by digging. It is quite possible that the attachment and maternal instinct of the helplessness of her great full-grown baby to forage and protect itself in part lead to that abandonment of self conspicuously shown in the heartrending stories of hunters. Whether the Morse has the marked migratory habits which we shall afterwards show obtain among the Seals is uncertain. Circumstances rather tend to prove it to be more permanent in its resorts, though occasionally some individuals must straggle from the herd, since at intervals its occurrence on the British coast has been recorded. Undoubtedly its area is decreasing, and the remaining few seek unfrequented spots in high latitudes less accessible to the sealers. In former days their abundance is historically handed down to us in the fact—as Dr. Rink, Dr. Robert Brown, and others tell us—that the Greenlanders “paid their tribute to the Crusades in the shape of Walrus-tusks, delivered in Bergen in 1327, and their weight is noted in a receipt which is still in existence.” But a century ago their numbers were enormous, on the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, sixteen hundred being slaughtered at an onset. Among the first voyagers to Spitzbergen it was no uncommon thing to slay hundreds in a few hours. Lamont tells a story of four boats’ crews, in 1852, massacring nine hundred Walruses in a herd of some thousands which they discovered in one of the small islands to the south of Spitzbergen. So greedy were the hunters that half of their spoil had to be left behind, and the rotting carcases afterwards raised such a stench that the animals deserted this previously favourite haunt, a sad lesson of man’s inhumanity and savage lust of gain.
The more general opinion is that the flesh of the Walrus is tolerably palatable, and certainly the Eskimo consider the hide a dainty for dessert. The tongue, at least, is excellent, and a favourite dish amongst the whale-fishers and the crews of the various Arctic expeditions. Lamont, dining on stewed Walrus veal, mentions its being slightly insipid, but good eating notwithstanding; the old animal’s flesh, however, is by no means so universally admired, although Arctic crews, at a pinch, much prefer it to salt junk.
At one time a considerable trade was devoted to Walrus-hunting, but the diminishment of their numbers has practically reduced it to the lowest ebb. The tusks alone have now any commercial significance, but formerly Walrus hides were used for various purposes, such as machine-bands, carriage-springs, rigging of ships, and the like.
CHAPTER II.
II.—THE SEA LION FAMILY (OTARIIDÆ).
Various Names—Peculiarities of Distribution—Characteristics of the Family—Dentition—Skull—Fossil Remains—Distinction between Fur and Hair Seals—Preparation of the Seal-skin—[THE NORTHERN FUR SEAL]—History—The Pribyloff Islands—Male, Female, Young—“Hauling-grounds”—Wintering—Males at the Islands in Spring—Desperate Battles for Seaward Positions—Approach of the Females—Struggles for Wives—The Young—Abstinence from Food, Water, and Sleep for more than Two Months—Neutral Ground in the “Rookeries”—Habits of the Young—Food—Annual Slaughter—Estimated Numbers—Mode of Killing—[STELLER’S SEA LION]—[GILLIESPIE’S HAIR SEAL]—[HOOKER’S SEA BEAR]—The Wreck of the Grafton—Musgrave’s Narrative—Sufferings of the Castaways—Their Experiences among the Sea Bears—[THE WHITE-NECKED OTARY]—Distribution—Description—“Counsellor Seal”—[THE PATAGONIAN SEA LION]—Historical Associations—Impetus to the Study of the Family—François Lecomte—Its Docility and Intelligence—Its various Performances—Voracity—Lecomte’s Observations—Habits—[THE FALKLAND ISLAND FUR SEAL]—Habitat—The Hunter’s Boats—Driven from their Haunts—Captain Weddell’s Observations—Great Wariness and Speed—Size—Habits—[THE SOUTH AFRICAN, OR CAPE FUR SEAL]—[THE NEW ZEALAND FUR SEAL]—[THE ASH-COLOURED OTARY]—Peron’s Services to Science.
THE old voyagers have termed, and the present race of sealers know, members of the Otary family by such names as Sea Lion, Sea Leopard, Sea Bear, Sea Wolf, Sea Dog, &c., and these terms have even passed from seamen to science. The Otariidæ, like the Common Seals, are found both in the northern and southern hemispheres, but it is a remarkable fact that the species (some would even say genera) inhabiting the northern and southern regions are perfectly distinct the one from the other. Nay more, the one seems representative of the other. For example, there are a certain number of Fur-bearing Seals, and a certain number of Hair Seals, distributed over a wide area of the Arctic and Antarctic Circles, which, in either case, are spread hither and thither into more temperate latitudes. Indeed, the most recent observations tend to show that these animals are migratory in habit, and frequent certain given localities at regular intervals.