CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION--THE WALRUS, OR MORSE.

Pinnipedia distinctly Aquatic--The Three Families--Their Common Characteristics--Skeleton--Mobility of Figure--Feet--Dentition--Skull--Tongue--Stomach--Intestine--Peculiar Disposition of Blood-vessels of Liver--Lungs--Sense of Smell--Larynx--Brain--Sense of Hearing--The Walrus Family--Characteristics--THE WALRUS, OR MORSE--Geographical Distribution--Fossil Forms--Weight--Size--Appearance in Old Age--Mode of Walk--Habits--On Guard--In the Water--Attacked--Tusks--Dentition of the Young--Uses of the Tusks--Food--Long Fasts--Story of “Jamie,” a Tame Walrus--The Young--Maternal Affection--Massacre--Walrus as an Article of Diet.

The Walrus, the Sea Lions, and the Seals, collectively termed the Pinnipedia,[203] or by some Pinnigrada,[204] constitute the second well-marked group or sub-order of the Carnivora. They are truly inhabitants of the high seas, the land being to them only an occasional resort, when procreation or other causes induce short visits, or temporary residence thereupon. In the previous chapters it has been noted that certain of the so-called Land Carnivora, the White Polar Bear, or the Common Otter (_Lutra_), for example, take freely to the water, and even subsist on finny and other prey derived therefrom, but nevertheless, as a rule, such Carnivora only peradventure are semi-aquatic. The one notable instance to the contrary is the Sea Otter (_Enhydra_), an animal seldom seen on land, though rarely met with far from rocky reefs and islets. Besides mere habit, the Polar Bears and Otters in some points of their organisation--particularly the conformation of the skull of the first, and webbed toes and abundant under-fur in the two last--show a partial gradation and tendency of structure towards their strictly marine brethren, the Seal tribe.

The group of the Pinnipedia is one in which considerable interest is centred, and this for several reasons. Their history, as handed down by classical lore, has a shade of the mythical, and well shows how fable has become engrafted on fact. Within the last two centuries their pursuit has been brimful of incident and adventure. As articles of commerce, the oil and the furs of certain kinds of the Seal tribe are of immense importance; whilst the mere hides of all, besides the Walrus tusks, are commodities of great value. Indeed, to the natives of the Arctic regions, Seals are indispensable as a means of every-day existence. But to the naturalist the fact of their being Carnivores peculiarly adapted to an aquatic life, and the study of their habits generally, are subjects of intense interest.

Moreover, the gradual, in some instances sudden, diminution of Seal life at the hand of man, points to a possible early period of their extinction, as in the case of the Whales and Manatee tribes, and warns, like the Roman story of the Sybilline books, that if we would read the history of the past, the knowledge must be culled ere the records are swept beyond recall.

The three families of the Pinnipedia are denominated in technical language the Trichechidæ,[205] the Otariidæ,[206] and the Phocidæ.[207] The first has but one living representative, the Walrus, or Morse; the second contains the so-called Sea Lions and Sea Bears, more distinctively known as Eared Seals; in the third family are ranged the ordinary Seals, contra-distinguished as Earless Seals. Sufficiently different among themselves in general aspects and habits, as to be recognised at a glance, the three families, nevertheless, have characteristic features common to all, wherefrom the sub-order has received its name. Their toes are united nearly throughout by a web of membrane, as in a duck’s foot, which converts the paws into broad, fin-like organs (the flippers), well adapted for swimming purposes. This feather-footed, pinnipedal condition is associated with a shortening of the upper segments of the limbs, and such peculiar attachment especially of the hind-legs as to leave little more than the feet free. The body is long, usually ample and fleshy at the neck and shoulders, but narrows taperingly behind towards the rump. The head is either flattish and elongated or more or less rounded, but in all cases relatively small to the bulk of the animal. External ears are absent save in the Otary family, which possess a diminutive, conical, or pear-shaped ear-conch. The eyes are full, and often expressive, though usually on land bearing a drowsy look, from their vision being adapted for a watery medium. Unless as the merest rudiment, there are no eyelashes or eyebrows. The muzzle is dog-like, but with long, stiff, though exceedingly mobile moustaches. In the Walrus, however, chiefly on account of its huge tusks, this part of the face is immensely dilated, fleshy, and covered with great pliable bristles, like knitting-needles in calibre; these latter and tusks being adaptations suited to the animal’s mode of feeding. The skin of the body fits loosely, and there is a thick layer of oily fat beneath, its amount depending on general condition, season, and sex. The hairy covering is of two sorts, a stouter, coarser, and at the roots a much shorter, softer kind. As it appears ordinarily, the hair seems uniform and short, and when wetted it clings close to the skin, so that the surface then is smooth and polished, becoming rougher as it dries. Now, it is the soft under-wool, which is in great abundance in some of the Sea Lions only, that constitutes the fur of commerce.

In the skeleton it is to the amount of cartilage between the bones, along with the gristly rods attaching the ribs to the back and breast-bones, that the extraordinary mobility of figure on land, and easy motions of swimming in the water, which belong _par excellence_ to the Marine Carnivora, are due. Add to this that the hip-bones are narrow and remarkably compressed, the thigh-bones excessively short, the shank-bones long and tied in behind, while great hind-flippers, like double oars rearwards, drive or steer with sculling sweep. The bones of the fore-limb and its modified foot altogether are strong, and remarkably so in the powerful-swimming Sea Lions. All four feet have excessively long toes, the thumb-bones being longest, the fingers lessening to the little toes; in the hind-foot the three middle toes are shorter than the two outer ones. There are tiny nails on each toe at the bone ends, beyond which is a flat spatula-shaped cartilage, of excessive length in the Otary family. The webbed flat feet are thus altogether very peculiar, and when used the entire sole, even including wrist and ankle-bones, is laid flat on the ground, so that two families of the Pinnipedia are really more plantigrade than the Bears. The Common Seals, or Phocidæ, however, never use the hind-feet on land, and the fore-feet but sparingly, while their nails are more claw-like than in their marine congeners. In none of the Seal tribe, though, are the nails or claws retractile, as previously has been shown (p. 12) in the Cat and Lion.

The skull in the three families presents modifications partly adapted to their different habits and modes of life, and partly to their race characters. In none, however, do we find the peculiar scissor-like or cutting teeth (see p. 13) of the typical Land Carnivora, but, as in the Bear tribe, the dentition exhibits a diminution in the cutting form of the teeth, and a tendency in some of the creatures to a levelling and conical production of the crown of the molars, while in others these latter show a serrate or saw-like character. For example, in the Walrus all the teeth, save the canines, are short and simple-fanged, the canines themselves, or, as they are more commonly termed in this animal, tusks, being of inordinate length and strength. In the Otariidæ, the canines, though themselves of good size, are small in comparison with those of the Morse tribe, while the incisors and single-rooted molars are more conical and prominent. The dentition of the Phocidæ varies considerably, in some the occasionally double-rooted molars acquiring a tuberculate, in others a saw-like or serrate character, while the incisors are notch-crowned. The bony cavity for the eye is open behind; the facial region is less prominently produced than in some of the feline Carnivora. The region of the brain-pan is relatively full, while the skull, as a whole, is elongated and flat. In youth, the cranium of the Pinnipedia has a predominating brain area, and the entire bony surface is smooth and featureless. As age advances, however, in certain of the genera at least, the relation of parts changes, and the face acquires prominence, while great bony crests arise on the summit and back of the head. The tongue does not possess the spines met with in the Cat tribe, though the surface is roughish. In the Seals, but not in the Walrus, the tip is slightly cleft. The stomach is single-chambered. The intestine is considerably longer than in the Felidæ, averaging fifteen times the length of the body, or thereabouts. The glands of the internal coat in some of the tribe are very extensive, and co-ordinate with the excessively rapid digestion.

A curious point in connection with the veins entering the liver is their enormous dilatation. This, by some writers, has been regarded as the means whereby the animal is enabled to remain submerged, the blood being held in these reservoirs instead of passing on towards the heart and lungs to be aërated. But whether this peculiar disposition of the blood-vessels is necessarily connected with diving powers, up to the present time has not been satisfactorily decided. Whatsoever the relation between structure and habit in this respect, it has been observed that the staying-power of the Seal tribe under water increases from youth to age. In the Pinnipedia, the lungs, relatively, are capacious, the animal rising to breathe air at intervals from ten minutes to half an hour or more, when at the surface taking a long and deep inspiration. The nostrils are under the influence of strong fleshy bundles, which firmly compress the orifices when below water. Their sense of smell is well developed, and the larynx simple. The brain in all is not only large, but far surpasses in volume and in amount of convolutions that of the Land Carnivora as a whole. Their docility and intelligence, especially when young, are often remarkable. The voice is plaintive or bellowing, but wanting the great compass and strength of the Felidæ. The nerves supplying the organs of smell, sight, and hearing are large, and the last is most unusually acute. Indeed, it is possibly to hearing more than to the other senses that the Seal tribe are dependent for their safety and living. The facts of sound readily travelling under water, of solid ice being also a good conductor, and of the quietness of the frozen regions, all tend to render this faculty of the highest service, nay, a necessity, to the creatures possessing it. Particularly is the faculty of hearing essential when the Pinniped goes on land, for in the rarer medium of the air its vision is defective, the construction of the lens, &c., being that best fitted for sight under water.

I.--THE WALRUS FAMILY (TRICHECHIDÆ).

This family in some points resembles the Eared Seals, or Otaries, and in others approaches the Earless Seals, or Phocidæ. The characters of the family are mainly, if not wholly, derived from the Walrus, the only living representative. There are no external ears, but a fair-sized opening indicates the passage. Both sexes, when adult, possess two immense tusks in the upper jaw, quite a notable feature. Along with this, there is full development of the bony parts to accommodate them, and the huge, though abruptly truncated muzzle, is garnished with long and remarkably strong bristly moustaches. The semilunar-shaped nostrils, situated above these, are dilated or powerfully compressed at will, by the thick, fleshy muscles of the upper lip. The eye is smaller than in the Otariidæ and Phocidæ. The body, especially its hinder part, is also heavier. The tail seems absent, though, in reality, nearly reaching to the heels, but a broad flap of skin stretches across from leg to leg, and binding these, hides the tail. The hind limbs appear shorter than in the two neighbouring families, but the above tail-membrane is wider, and allows greater freedom to the legs and feet. The three middle toes are shortest, as is the case with the Common Seals, but not the Otaries. The fore-legs are of intermediate length, strong, stumpy, and although the thumb is biggest, there is a certain equality in the length of the toes. The fore feet, as well as the hind feet, are sufficiently free to be laid flat on the ground. The nails are diminutive, and not claw-like, and the soles of the feet are unusually rough and warty. The tongue is smooth, and not cleft at the tip. The dental series is as follows:--Incisors, (1-1)/(0-0); canines, (1-1)/(1-1); premolars, (3-3)/(3-3); molars, (2-2)/(1-1) = 24. The tusks, or upper canines, lie outside and almost in front of the dental arch. The incisor and grinding teeth are uncommonly alike, being short, cylindrical, and obliquely truncated at their crowns. The teeth alone are very distinctive of this family, and modified for uses and a diet _sui generis_. There is no such development of a thick coating of under-fur, as in certain of the Otary family, the root hairs being sparse, and the larger sort softer, shaggier, and not so close pressed as in the Seals.

THE WALRUS, OR MORSE.[208]--So far as looks are concerned, scarcely a more uninviting fellow can be conceived than this animal, which the Greenlanders and Eskimo call “Awŭk,” from its peculiar guttural cry. It is better known among our own countrymen as the Sea Horse, though naturalists more frequently prefer Walrus, or Morse, words respectively modified derivatives from the old Norse and Lapp languages. Its present range is a narrow belt girding Labrador, Hudson’s and Baffin’s Bays, and skirting the East Greenland coast towards Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, and still farther stretching on to Behring’s Strait and the islands off Alaska. Certain writers are inclined to regard the animal found in the North Pacific as a different species from that inhabiting the North Atlantic seas; but on this head no very justifiable evidence is yet offered. Meantime, its geographical distribution, briefly defined, is the Arctic Circle. Here, thinned by its hereditary enemy, the Polar Bear on the land side, and stricken down wholesale by man seawards, the day of its extermination seems not far distant. The living Walrus, indeed, presents to us a solitary example of a family once more numerous and widespread, and doubtless coincident with a period when climate was different from that now existing where their fossil remains have been discovered. In the deposits of Virginia, on the American Continent, in the Suffolk crag, and possibly in contemporaneous beds around the neighbourhood of Antwerp, bones of Walruses allied to the present northern form have been dug up. But others, moreover, have been found which, from greater size and characteristic peculiarities, evidently belonged to at least two genera (_Trichechodon_ and _Alachtherium_) distinct from the Arctic animal. Thus, by degrees, the more massive representatives of the family Trichechidæ have died out, while the last of the descendants visibly diminish amongst the bergs of their secluded, ice-bound home.

The Walrus of the present day is a creature which attains large dimensions. Elliott mentions a great fellow, shot in the Behring Sea, nearly 13 feet long, and with a girth of 14 feet; and he estimates the gross weight of an ordinary full-grown male at 2,000 lbs. Well have some likened the hide, which is of a tawny brown colour, to a tough, flexible coat of mail, which harpoon and even bullets penetrate with difficulty. In old age these creatures do not only become obese, shapeless masses, but their gnarled hide, scarred by tusk-marks, bullet, or harpoon wounds, gets blotchy, pustular, and hairless. This, with small, fierce, bloodshot eye, in marked contrast with that of the Seals, and formidable pair of tusks, gives it a ferocious and demoniacal look.

The unusually flattened head seems disproportionately small to the great neck and sack-like body, the tusks and moustaches being all in all either in profile or front view. Their movement on land is very awkward and droll. With high-set shoulders and low hind-quarters, and squat limbs to their heavy body, the fore feet are successively thrust flat forwards from the wrist, each followed by a hitch and swing of the hind foot, as from a pivot on the heel, ending in a sudden sort of jerk or check. Thus they straddle in a clumsy, indolent way along the rough ice, in emergency exerting themselves into a kind of hobbling canter.

This ungainly creature, though so repellent in features, is in reality quiet and inoffensive, unless attacked or roused in love-time, when woe betide those who measure his strength, especially if he reach his native watery element. They are very gregarious, seldom being met with singly, but often in herds from a dozen to several hundreds, as Captain Cook long ago observed. They crowd up from the water on to the rocks or ice one after the other, grunting and bellowing. The first arrived is no sooner composed in sleeping trim, than a second comes prodding and poking with its blunt tusks, forcing room for itself, while the first is urged farther from the water; the second in turn is similarly treated by the third; and so on, until numbers will lie packed close, heads and tails resting against and on each other, in the most convenient and friendly manner possible. There they sleep and snore to their hearts’ content, but nevertheless, according to Elliott, keep guard in a singular fashion. Some one would seem to disturb another; then this fellow would raise his head listlessly, give a grunt and a poke to his nearest companion, who would rouse up a few minutes, also grunt, and pass the watchword to his neighbour, and so on through the herd, this disturbance always keeping some few on the alert. Danger announced, they scuttle pell-mell and topsy-turvy into the water.

Once in the sea, their sluggish deportment vanishes, and activity is the order of the day. Curiosity aroused, or attack threatened, as Lamont remarks, the herd keep near each other. One moment a crowd of grisly heads and long, gleaming white tusks are above the waves; then follow snorting and hasty breathing; immediately thereafter, a host of brown hemispherical backs, followed by pairs of flourishing hind-flippers, and the lot have dived, again to appear at an interval, and the same performance be gone through. If one gets injured, or a young one is in danger, the host of Walruses close round the boat, grunting, rearing, and snorting, and if their wrath be roused, they rush simultaneously to the fight, and attack the boat. When a young Sea Horse is wounded, the parent becomes desperate, and fearlessly exposes herself, or seizes the youngster under her fore-flipper, and makes off, or defends herself and progeny to the death. There is no security to the hunter on the ice, which the animal in its fury will break through, even when six inches thick.

The tusks vary from eight inches to two feet long, and may weigh from five to fifteen pounds; in the males they are generally supposed to be thicker and more divergent. These teeth continuously grow, and, as they wear away, their interior becomes filled with tooth bone. In the young Walrus, there appears to be more teeth than in the adult; but these, as Professor Flower has shown, are exceedingly diminutive denticles, and may or may not remain through life. The first tooth of the molar series in the upper jaw, as in the Dog and other Carnivora, has no predecessor; but the second and third are preceded by milk teeth. In the lower jaw there are three milk teeth.

The formidable canines, when employed as offensive weapons (Lamont notes), not only are used downwards, but by a quick turn of the neck the animal strikes upwards and sideways with equal dexterity. Again, in raising the body out of the water on to the ice-floe after the first jerk forwards, the tusks are dug into the ice with terrific force, and thus the body is hauled on till footing is gained. Broken tusks are by no means rare. But the most important function performed by the tusks is as instruments for procuring food. A part of its time is spent by the Morse on banks and among shoal water, where lie buried in the mud shell-fish in abundance. Certain kinds of Mussels and Cockles are here dug up by the tusks and gulped, often shells and all; but occasionally it swallows Shrimps, Starfish, and marine worms. Dr. Robert Brown states that whenever killed near a Whale’s carcass, the stomach of the Walrus was invariably found crammed with the Whale-flesh. Some say they eat sea-weeds; but the young animal possessed by the Zoological Society, though tried by Mr. Bartlett, refused these, but greedily took Mussels, Whelks, Clams, and the stomachs and intestines and other soft part of fishes cut small. This said young one could not swallow anything larger than a walnut, and from the way in which it used its mouth bristles, in brushing backwards and forwards the food and sucking everything through them, their use as a sieve was very manifest.

Whatsoever their diet they thrive on it, and store up much fat, though less proportionally than Seals. Like some of the Sea Lions, they have the curious habit of swallowing stones, the economy of which is imperfectly understood. But there can be no doubt of the fact, or of another equally strange, that of their protracted fasts. During the autumn months the Sea Horses will muster in force on land, and quite lethargic there doze for days or weeks without tasting food, thus recalling the hibernation of the Bear tribe. The Walrus is infested with skin-parasites and intestinal-worms, and the pebble-swallowing habit is supposed to relieve the irritation of the latter.

Not unfrequently a troop will be found sleeping bolt upright in the water, and so soundly that a boat can approach close to them before they awake. They can remain under water, some say an hour, before requiring to take breath, but the length of time doubtless depends on circumstances; and ordinarily, or when suddenly disturbed, barely a third of that time.

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.

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.