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Show 1868.] MR. R. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. 431 The Walrus, being an animal of considerable cerebral development, is capable of being readily domesticated. For many years past the Norwegians have frequently brought specimens to different Scandinavian ports ; and two have reached England, and survived a short time. More than a century ago one of these animals reached England. De Laet*, quoting from Edward Worst, who saw one of them alive in England which was three months old and had been brought from Nova Zembla, says :-•" Every day it was put into water for a short time, but it always seemed happy to return to dry ground. It was about the size of a calf, and could open and shut its nostrils at pleasure. It grunted like a wild Boar, and sometimes cried with a strong deep voice. It was fed with oats and millet, which it rather sucked in than masticated. It was not without difficulty that it approached its master ; but it attempted to follow him, especially when it had the prospect of receiving nourishment at his hand." Its naturalization in our Zoological Gardens having therefore become a subject of considerable interest, I cannot better conclude these notes on the habits of the Walrus than by describing a young one I saw on board a ship in Davis's Strait, in 1861, and which, had it survived, was intended for the Zoological Society. It was caught near the Duck-Islands off the coast of North Greenland, and at the same time its mother was killed; it was then sucking, and too young to take the water, so that it fell an easy prey to its captors. It could only have been pupped a very few hours. It was then 3 feet in length, but already the canine tusks were beginning to cut the gums. When I first saw it, it was grunting about the deck, sucking a piece of its mother's blubber, or sucking the skin which lay on deck, at the place where the teats were. It was subsequently fed on oatmeal and water and pea-soup, and seemed to thrive upon this outre" nourishment. No fish could be got for it; and the only animal food which it obtained was a little freshened beef or pork, or Bear's flesh, which it readily ate. It had its likes and dislikes, and its favourites on board, whom it instantly recognized. It became exceedingly irritated if a newspaper was shaken in its face, when it would run open-mouthed all over the deck after the perpetrator of this literary outrage. When a " fall"f was called it would immediately run at a clumsy rate (about one and a half or two miles an hour), first into the surgeon's cabin, then into the captain's (being on a level with the quarterdeck), apparently to see if they were up, and then out again, grunting all about the deck in a most excited manner " awuk\ awukV When the men were " sallying" %, it would imitate the operation, though clumsily, rarely managing to get more than its own length before it required to turn again. It lay * Description des Indes Occidentales, apud Buffon. t When a boat gets " fast" to a Whale, all the rest of the crew run shouting about the decks, as they get the other boats out, " a fall! a fall!" It is apparently derived from the Dutch word " Val," a Whale. i When a ship gets impeded by loose ice gathering around it, the crew rush in a body from side to side so as to loosen it, by swaying the vessel from beam to beam. This is called " sallying the ship."' |
