The Living Animals of the World, Volume I: Mammals

By permission of Her r Car Hamburg.

FEMALE WALRUS.

This is a photograph of the only walrus which has ever been tamed and taught to perform tricks. It was taken when she was two years old and weighed 380 Ibs. At that time she consumed 70 Ibs. of boneless fish a day; a year later not less than 100 Ibs. satisfied her. She is now an inmate of the Roumanian Zoological Gardens.

of the World140 The Living Animals

THE WALRUS.

The distinguishing features of the walrus have been mentioned in the introductory remarks to this chapter. It should be added that it has an external ear-passage, though no external ears, and very thick and bristly whiskers. It is practically confined to the Arctic Circle, though once its range extended to the British coasts (where its bones are found in the Suffolk Crag) and to Virginia. The skull of one was found in the peat at Ely evidence that it once ascended rivers.

By permission of the Hon. Waller Rotluschild] _Tring. The walrus stands alone; it is a real

MALE WALRUS.

monster of the deep. Strange and awful The "tusks" of the walrus are put to many practical uses during life, and after death are much valued for the ivory. stories were told of it by some of the early voyagers to the Arctic Seas; but Captain Cook gave a very different account of his impressions of the walruses which he saw on the north coast lie in herds of many hundreds on the ice, huddling over one anotherof America: " They like swine. (They lie just like a lot of pigs in a yard.) They roar and bray so very loud, that in the night, or in foggy weather, they gave us notice of the vicinity of the ice before we could see it. We never found the whole herd asleep, some being always on the watch. These, on the approach of the boat, would awaken those next to them; and the alarm being thus gradually communicated, the whole herd would awake presently. But they were seldom in a hurry to get away, till after they had been once fired at; they then would tumble over one another into the sea in the utmost confusion. They did not appear to us to be that dangerous animal which authors have described, not even when attacked. Vast numbers of them would follow us, and come close up to the boats; but the flash of the musket in the pan, or the bare pointing of it, would send them down in an instant. The female will defend her young to the last, and at the expense of her own life, whether in ; so thatthe water or upon the ice; nor will the young one quit the dam, though she be dead if one be killed the other is certain prey." The long pendent tusks, bristly whiskers, small bloodshot eyes, and great size lent colour to the terrifying tales of the walrus. But more as they called them,ancient voyagers than Captain Cook told the truth that the " morses," were harmless creatures, which often followed the ships from sheer curiosity. The}- sleep on the ice like elephantine pigs, and dive and rout on the sea-bottom for clams, cuttle-fish, and seaweeds. Probably the long tusks are used to rake up mussels and clams; they also help walrus was kept for some time by the membersthe walrus to climb on to the ice. A young of the Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition, and was found to be an amusing pet. One kept on board a Dundee whaler used to sleep with an Eskimo dog, and got into the same kennel with it. It ate blubber and salt pork, but liked the sailors' pea-soup better than anything else; it was most sociable, and could not bear to be alone would tumble down the hatchway to seek the society of its beloved sailors, and scramble into the cabin if the door were open. it. The for any attention shown toWhen it fell ill and before it died, it seemed most grateful parent walrus shows the greatest courage in trying to defend the young one. Walruses are is a chancenow scarce; but as the ivory is the only part of them of much present value, there that they may not be killed off entirely.

THE TRUE SEALS.

The TRUE SEALS, with their greatly modified forms, heads set almost on to their shoulders, with no neck visible, have well-developed claws on all the toes, and in the typical species have double-rooted and small cheek-teeth. The number of the incisors is variable. The GREY SEAL

Marine Carnivora 141

of the North Atlantic is a large species which visits the North British coasts and the Hebrides. One old male shot off the coast of Connemara weighed nearly 400 Ibs., and was 8 feet long. It is found off Scandinavia and eastwards to the coast of Greenland, and breeds off our coasts lochs. Its colourin October and November. This is the large seal occasionally shot up Scotch is yellowish grey, varied with blots and patches of dirty black and brown.

THE COMMON SEAL.

This seal is smaller than the preceding. It breeds on parts of the Welsh and Cornish coasts, and is found on both sides of the Atlantic and in the North Pacific. It assembles in small herds, and frequents lochs, estuaries, and river-mouths. In the summer it is fond of following flounders and sea-trout up rivers. A few years ago one came up the Thames and was shot at Richmond. The young are born in June, and are greyish white. The adults are variously mottled with grey, brown, and black. The fondness of seals for music is proverbial. Macgillivray, the Scotch naturalist, said that in the Hebrides he could bring half a score of them within forty yards of him by a few notes on his flute, when they would swim about with their heads above seal was captured by the servants of a landowner nearwater like so many black dogs. A Clew Bay, on the west coast of Ireland, and kept tame for four years. It became so attached to the house that, after being carried out to sea three times, it returned on each occasion. The cruel wretches who owned it then blinded it, out of curiosity to see whether it could find its way back sightless. The poor animal did so after eight days.

The common seal is still fairly numerous on the rocky western coasts of the British Islands, though a few old seals, unable to forget their early habits, appear now and then in Morecambe Bay and in the Solway. It is not uncommon off the coasts of Caithness and Sutherland. It also frequents a sandbank in the Dornoch Firth, though it has been much persecuted there. The common seal is gregarious, while the grey seal usually lives only in pairs, or at most in small companies. Two or three dozen like to lie closely packed on shore with all their heads turning seawards. The white hair of the young seals which, as already said, are born in Jane is shed in a day or two, when the young take to the water. With regard to their reputed musical proclivities, some experiments made at the ZoologicalO Gardens did not bear out this belief; but there is much evidence that in a state of nature they will approach and listen to music. The common seal has a large brain- capacity, and is a The very intelligent creature. upper parts of this seal are with black yellowish grey, spotted and brown, the under parts being

silver-grey. The HARP-SEAL is an Arctic y permission of HerrCarlffagenbeck] [Hamburg.

i WALRUS AND SEA-LION.

Or ice-Seal Which Sometimes t photograph of the wairus temed by Herr Carl Hagenbeck. Notice the sea-lion in ^^tie right-hand corner, which also formed one of the same performing troupe. its Way to Britain. The yOUn

of the World142 The Living Animals

are born on ice-floes. It is found in great herds in Davis Straits, on the coasts of Greenland, and in the greater part of the frozen Arctic Ocean. It is the animal which the sealing-vessels which hunt seals for oil and "hair" that is, the leather of the skins, not the fur seek and destroy. In the old days they could be seen in tens of thousands blackening square miles of ice. They are still so numerous that in Danish Greenland more than 30,000 are taken each year. The KINGED SEAL is a small

Photo by York & Son] [Sotting Hill. variety, not more than 3 or 4 feet GREY SEAL. in length, found in great numbers Seals are not so well adapted as sea-lions for getting about on the dry land, and, except for their habit of coming ashore to bask in the sun, are thoroughly aqxiatic. in the Far North. Its flesh is the main food of the Eskimo, and its skin the clothing of the Greenlanders. The seals make breathing-holes in the ice. There the Eskimo waits with uplifted spear for hours at a time, until the seal comes up to breathe, when it is harpooned. The BLADDER-NOSED SEAL is a large spotted variety, with a curious bladder-like crest on the head and nose of the male. Unlike all other seals, it sometimes resists the hunters and attacks the Eskimo in their kayaks.

If any evidence were needed of the great destruction which the sealing and whaling industry causes, and has caused, among the large marine animals, the case of the ELEPHANT-SEALS ought to carry conviction. These are very large seals, the male of which has a projecting nose like a proboscis. They were formerly found both north and south of the Equator, their main haunts being on the coast of California, and on the islands of the South Pacific and Antarctic Ocean. They are gigantic compared with the common seals, some of the males being from 16 to 20 feet long. Cuttle-fish and seaweed are the principal food of this seal, which was formerly seen in astonishing numbers. The whaling-ships which hunted both these seals and sperm-whales at the same time almost destroyed those which bred on the more accessible coasts, just as the earlier whalers entirely destroyed Steller's sea-cow, and their modern descendants isdestroyed the southern right-whales. The elephant-seal is now very scarce, and when one killed the skin is regarded as something of a curiosity.

In the records of the voyage of the Challenger it is stated that there were still great numbers of the elephant-seals surviving near Heard Island, and not a few round the shores of Kerguelen Island. Professor Moseley states that on the windward shore of Heard Island "there is an extensive beach, called Long Beach. This was covered with thousands of sea-elephants in the breeding-season; but it is only accessible by land, and then only by crossing two glaciers. ' No boat can safely land on this shore; consequently men are stationed on the beach, and live there in huts. Their duty is constantly to drive the sea-elephants from this beach into the sea, which they do with whips made out of the hides of the seals themselves. The beasts thus ousted swim off, and often 'haul up,' as the term is, upon the accessible beach beyond. In very stormy weather, when they are driven into the sea, they are forced to betake themselves ' beach-masters,'to the sheltered side of the island. Two or three old males, which are called hold a beach for themselves and cover it with cows, but allow no other males to haul up. They light furiously, and one man told me that he had seen an old male take a young one up in his teeth and throw him over, lifting him in the air. The males show fight when whipped, and are with great difficulty driven into the sea. The females give birth to their