A HIDEOUS BEAST.

Otago Witness, Issue 1861, 22 July 1887, Page 36

A HIDEOUS BEAST.

It is a melancholy fact, but none the less true, that the walrus is one of the most dis-gusting-looking objects known to man. It has a raw, naked hide, without hair or fur, cdvered with a multitude of pustular-look-ing warts, boils, and pimples, the skin wrinkled in deep, flabby folds, and marked by dark venous lines, which show clearly through the yellowish-brown cuticle, which seems to be peeling off with leprosy, altogether a most unwholesome-looking brute, unpleasantly suggesting the appearance wo know as " bloated."

They are of tremendous size, lO.^ft to 12ffc long, and weighing 15001b or 16001b. In water their motions are not nearly so quiet or graceful as those of the seal and sea-lion, and on land they are almost helpless, for which reason they rarely come outside the surfwash. They go about in large herds, which now and then emerge to sleep. First one lands and lays itself out, and then a second comes and gives his predecessor a shove, whereupon he moves a little further up ; then comes number three who pokes up number two, who prods number one, and so on till the whole herd has got to land, each brute pillowed on the body of the one above him, all without, quarrelling, but every movement displaying apathy and phlegm. Its most extraordinary feature is its hide, which, over the shoulders and down the throat and «hesr, is 3in thick, and is nowhere less than Am.

It feeds exclusively on shell-fish and the bulbous roots and tender stalks of certain marine plants, whicli grow abundantly at the bottom of the bays and lagoons of the Alaskan coast ; and it is evidently for digging up these that it uses its tusks and not, as is reported, for the purpose of hauling itself upon ice or rock. Another blow to received opinion is given by Mr Elliott's testimony as to the cowardice of the brutes. They will snort or blow to any extent in the water, but as to attacking a boat, that is the very last thing that would enter into their heads. It is ■unfortunate that no females were to be found about the islands. The natives say the creature is monogamous ; that the female brings forth a single calf in June, usually on the icefloes north of Behring Straits ; that it resembles its parents, in general character, when six weeks old, but thab its tusks do not appear till the second year ; and that the mother is strongly attached to it and nurses it late in the season in the sea. — All the Year Round.