t. Petersburg in 1829-30, also died in a short time. It gave
occasion to K.E. von BAER'S famous treatise: "Anatomische und
zoologische Untersuchungen ueber das Wallross," printed in _Memoires
de l'Academie Imperiale des Sciences de St. Petersbourg_, ser. vi.,
t. iv. 2, 1838, p. 97.

The walrus is hunted for its skin, blubber, and oil. The value of a
full-grown walrus was calculated at Tromsoe, in 1868, in settling
accounts between the owners of hunting sloops and the hunters, at
eighty Scandinavian crowns (say 4_l_. 10s.), but it sank in 1871 to
only forty-eight crowns (say 2_l_. 15s.). The flesh of the walrus is
coarse and train-flavoured, and is eaten by the hunters only in
cases of necessity. From my own experience, however, I can certify
that its comparatively small tongue is very delicious. By the Eskimo
and the Chukchis the flesh of the walrus is considered a delicacy.

[Illustration: WALRUS HUNTING. After Olaus Magnus (1555). ]

The walrus was doubtless hunted by the Polar tribes long before the
historic period,[79] but it is mentioned for the first time in
writing in the sketch of Othere's Arctic journey. The narrative
shows that it was then captured on the north coast of Scandinavia.
This appears the less improbable, as a walrus now and then even in
our days drifts to land on the Norwegian coast, and walruses are
still annually killed off Swjatoinos on the Kola peninsula,[80] The
walrus is very correctly described in the well-known Norse
confession written in the end of the eleventh century, "Konungs
skuggsja" (the King's Mirror), as an animal resembling the seal,[81]
except that, besides several smaller teeth, it has two large tusks
which project beyond the upper jaw. This clear and unexaggerated
sketch is however replaced in the later writings of the middle ages
by the most extraordinary accounts of the animal's appearance and
mode of capture. Thus Albertus Magnus,[82] who died in 1280, says
that the walrus is taken by the hunter, while the sleeping animal
hangs by its large tusks to a cleft of the rock, cutting out a piece
of its skin and fastening to it a strong rope whose other end is
tied to trees, posts, or large rings fixed to rocks. The walrus is
then wakened by throwing large stones at its head. In its attempts
to escape it leaves its hide behind. It perishes soon after, or is
thrown up half dead on the beach. He further states that walrus
lines on account of their strength are suitable for lifting