of the Walrus having been seen in Shetland, and at Hillswick in 1902 I heard
that a Walrus had been killed there at the beginning of the last century, but
I could get no further particulars.
In the Orkneys the Walrus has without doubt been seen several times.
Baikie and Heddle say that one was killed in Eday in 1825, and Professor
Heddle of St. Andrews told Mr. Harvie-Brown that he himself saw an adult and
a young Walrus in 1849 or 1850 off the coast of the parish of Walls. Harvie-
Brown and Buckley give other instances of its reported occurrence in Orkney.1
Recently Major-General Kinloch has sent me word that a Walrus was seen several
times in the northern islands of Orkney during the autumn of 1902. In addition
to the Hebrides specimen already alluded to, another Walrus was killed in April 1841
on the East Haskeir, near Harris, by Captain MacDonald, R.N.,1 2 3 and in Harvie-
Brown and Buckley’s ‘%auna of the Outer Hebrides ’ there is the following
passage:— ‘ Captain MacDonald of Waternish, Skye— perhaps one of our most
experienced seal-shooters and otter-hunters in Scotland— told Harvie-Brown that a
Walrus was distinctly seen two years ago (1877) close to the point of rock near
Stein. It was afterwards seen off the coast of Sleat, in Skye, and fired at by a
keeper, who correctly described the animal.
In Ireland there is no record of a Walrus having been taken, but Mr. Charles
Akroyd, who is well acquainted with seals, told me that he saw a large Walrus in
the summer of 1897 off the mouth of the Shannon. The sea was perfectly still,
and the Walrus came close to the yacht and could be plainly seen.
Habits.— The Walrus was known to the dwellers in northern Europe at an
early period in history. A famous Norman named Othere, according to Von Baer,
in one of his voyages beyond the North Cape seems to have met with herds of
these animals and killed a few, some of the tusks of which he is said to have
given to King Alfred® about the year 890. From this date there is a chain of
evidence of the existence of the animal. The Finns hunted the Walrus on the
coast of Finmark as early as 890; Walrus tusks were an article of trade with the
Tartars in the twelfth century, and nearly all early Scandinavian writers speaking
of northern travels mention the remarkable and fearsome beast.
Naturally many distorted and quaint descriptions of the animal were given by
1 Fauna o f the Orkney Islands.
* Dr. R. Brown in the Annals and Magazine o f Natural History, 1871. Dr. Brown (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1868) mentions
two others he had heard of, one in Orkney in 1857, and the other reported by fishermen about the same time.
3 Hakluyt’s Voyages, i. 5.