greatly needed, the Esquimaux often lies patiently for hours together on the edge of a seal-hole waiting for the animal to come up. In order to give it time to get well out upon the ice, the hunter conceals himself behind a heap of snow, which he has collected and piled up for the purpose. A float-stick, ingeniously placed in the water of the breathing-hole, serves as a signal to tell when the seal is mounting through its trap-like passage, the The hunter then gets

motion of the stick betraying its ascent.

himself into the right attitude to strike, and summons all his energies for the encounter.

Even during the long dark night of winter this mode of capturing the seal is practised. The hunter, having discovered a breathing-hole-which its dark colour enables him to find-proceeds in the following manner: He scrapes away the snow from around it, and lifting up some water pours it on the ice, so as to make a circle of a darker hue around the orifice. He then makes a sort of cake of pure white snow, and with this covers the hole as with a lid. In the centre of this lid he punches a small opening with the shaft-end of his spear, and then sits down and patiently awaits the issue.

The seal ascends unsuspiciously, as before. The dark water, bubbling up through the small central orifice, betrays its approach, which can be perceived even in the darkest night. The hunter does not wait until it has climbed out upon the ice. Perhaps if he did so, the suspicious creature might detect the device, and dive down again. But it is not allowed time for reflection. Before it can turn its unwieldy body, the heavy spear of the hunterstruck through the yielding snow-descends upon its skull, and kills it in an instant.

THE WALRUS.

THE walrus, or sea-horse, is one of the most characteristic inhabitants of the Arctic regions. where it is found in large

Formed for a life among the icy seas, herds, it is protected against the ex

treme cold by a skin nearly an inch thick, and a coating of oily fat with which its body is completely enveloped.

The most remarkable feature in the walrus consists in two immense teeth, or tusks, which project in a curved line from the upper jaw, and are sometimes two feet long. They are of beautiful white bone, almost equal to ivory. With these tusks the walrus gathers its food, by scraping mussels and other shell-fish from the rocks and out of the sand. They also form powerful weapons of defence against the Polar bear and its other enemies.

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Even when not excited," says Dr. Kane, "he manages his tusks bravely. They are so strong that he uses them to grapple the rocks with, and to climb steeps of ice and land which would be inaccessible to him without their aid. He ascends in this way rocky islands that are sixty or a hundred feet above the level of the sea; and I have myself seen him in these elevated positions basking with his young in the cool sunshine of August and September.

"He can strike a fearful blow, but prefers charging with his tusks in a soldierly manner. I do not doubt the old stories of the Spitzbergen fisheries, where the walrus puts to flight the crowds of European boats. The walrus is the lion of the Danish Esquimaux, and they always speak of him with the highest respect.

"I have heard of oomiaks being detained for days at a time at the crossings of straits and passages which he infested. Governor Flaischer told me that, in 1830, a brown walrus,—which, according to the Esquimaux, is the fiercest,-after being lanced and maimed near Uppernavik, routed his numerous assailants, and drove them in fear to seek for help from the settlement. His movements were so violent as to jerk out the harpoons that were stuck into him. The governor slew him with great difficulty, after several rifle-shots and lance-wounds from his whale-boat.”

"On one occasion," says Captain Beechey, some of the crew of the Trent having wounded a walrus, took to their boat, when they were assailed by a large herd of these animals. Snorting with rage, they rushed at the boat, and it was with the utmost

difficulty they were prevented from upsetting it or tearing it to pieces. They would place their tusks on the gunwale, or rush at it with their heads. The herd was so numerous, and their attacks so incessant, that there was not time to load a musket. The purser, fortunately, had his gun loaded, and the men being nearly exhausted with chopping and striking at their assailants, he snatched it up, and, thrusting the muzzle into the mouth of a large and formidable walrus, who seemed to be the leader of the herd, he fired. The wound proved mortal, and the animal fell back among his companions, who immediately desisted from the attack, and in a moment quitted the boat, swimming away as hard as they could with their leader, whom they actually bore up with their tusks and preserved from sinking."

The walrus has two great enemies in his icy home-the Esquimaux and the Polar bear. Captain Beechy thus graphically describes the manœuvres of that king of the bruin race, which must often be attended with success. The bears, when hungry, are always on the watch for animals sleeping upon the ice, and they try to come on them unawares : "One sunshiny day a walrus, of nine or ten feet in length, rose in a pool of water not very far from us; and, after looking around, drew his greasy carcass upon the ice, where he rolled about for a time, and at length laid himself down to sleep. A bear, which had probably been observing his movements, crawled carefully upon the ice on the opposite side of the pool, and began to roll about also, but apparently more with design than for amusement, as he gradually lessened the distance that intervened between himself and his victim. The walrus, suspicious of his advances, drew himself up preparatory to a precipitate retreat into the water in case of a nearer acquaintance with his playful but treacherous visitor; on which the bear became instantly motionless, as if in the act of sleep; but after a time he began to lick his paws and clean himself, occasionally encroaching a little more upon his intended prey. But even this artifice did not succeed: the wary walrus was far too cunning to allow himself to be entrapped. He suddenly plunged into the pool; which the bear no

sooner observed than he threw off all disguise, rushed toward the spot, and followed him in an instant into the water; where, I fear, he was as much disappointed of his meal as we were of the pleasure of witnessing a very interesting encounter."

The front part of the head of a young walrus, when seen at a distance, is not unlike the human face; and, as the creature has the habit of raising its head above water to look at ships and other passing objects, this resemblance may have given rise to the old stories of mermaids and mermen in the Northern Seas.

The meat of the walrus is not despised by Europeans, while to the Esquimaux there is no greater treat than a kettle filled with walrus blubber.

A WALRUS HUNT.

[The following description of a walrus hunt is from Dr. Kane's "Arctic Explorations." It was witnessed by Lieutenant Morton, one of Dr Kane's party.]

THE party which Morton attended on their walrus hunt had three sledges. One was to be taken to a cache in the neighbourhood; the other two were dragged at a quick run toward the open water, about ten miles off to the south-west. They had but nine dogs to these two sledges, one man only riding, the others running by turns. As they neared the new ice, and where the black wastes of mingled cloud and water betokened the open sea, they would from time to time remove their hoods and listen intently for the animal's voice.

After a while Myouk became convinced, from signs or sounds, or both, for they were inappreciable by Morton,-that the walruses were waiting for him in a small space of recently-open water that was glazed over with a few days' growth of ice; and, moving gently on, they soon heard the characteristic bellow of a bull awak. The walrus, like some of the higher order of beings to which he has been compared, is fond of his own music, and will lie for hours listening to himself. His vocalization is something between the mooing of a cow and the deepest baying of a mastiff: very

round and full, with its barks or detached notes repeated rather quickly, from seven to nine times in succession.

The party now formed in single file, following in each other's steps; and, guided by an admirable knowledge of ice-topography, wound behind hummocks and ridges in a serpentine approach toward a group of pond-like discolourations, recently-frozen ice-spots, but surrounded by firmer and older ice.

When within half a mile of these, the line broke, and each man crawled toward a separate pool-Morton on his hands and knees following Myouk. In a few minutes the walruses were in sight. They were five in number, rising at intervals through the ice in a body, and breaking it up with an explosive puff that might have been heard for miles. Two large grim-looking males were conspicuous as the leaders of the group.

Now for the marvel of the craft. When the walrus is above water, the hunter is flat and motionless; as he begins to sink, alert and ready for a spring. The animal's head is hardly below the water-line before every man is in a rapid run; and again, as if by instinct, before the beast returns, all are motionless behind protecting knolls of ice. They seem to know beforehand not only the time he will be absent, but the very spot at which he will reappear. In this way, hiding and advancing by turns, Myouk, with Morton at his heels, has reached a plate of thin ice, hardly strong enough to bear them, at the very brink of the water-pool the walruses are curvetting in.

Myouk, till now phlegmatic, seems to waken with excitement. His coil of walrus-hide, a well-trimmed line of many fathoms' length, is lying at his side. He fixes one end of it in an iron barb, and fastens this loosely by a socket upon a shaft of unicorn's horn; the other end is already looped, or, as sailors would say, "doubled in a bight." It is the work of a moment. He has grasped the harpoon: the water is in motion. Puffing with pentup respiration, the walrus is within a couple of fathoms close before him. Myouk rises slowly—his right arm thrown back, the left flat at his side. The walrus looks about him, shaking the water from his crest: Myouk throws up his left arm, and the