BORN AMONG THE ICEBERGS.
AWAY up North among the cold icebergs seems a very uncomfortable place to live; and so it would be for you and me; but for Baby Walrus, who was born there and is suited to such a cold place, it is delightful.
There is nothing the chubby little fellow likes half so well as taking a nap on a great cake of clear ice, or diving into the cold water.
Though born on land, or on ice, the walrus is most at home in the water; and well it may be, for as it has only flippers instead of feet and legs, it cannot do anything but flop on the land, while in the water it can swim like a fish. It can even dive down, and not come up again for an hour.
The full-grown walrus is a terrible fellow, almost as big as an elephant, with two great tusks in his upper jaw, and a mouth covered with a beard as coarse as so many knitting needles. The baby, however, has no such tusks, and for two years has to be taken care of like any little human baby: And how its mother does love it I and its father, too, for that matter; but it is the mother that takes the greatest care of it. She is usually as gentle as anybody could wish, but touch her •baby, and you will see a fearful creature. She has tusks and whiskers as well as Papa Walrus; and when she opens her mouth to roar, she looks as satage as any animal can.
The walrus has several enemies, and the worst, I am sorry to say, are men who hunt it for its tusks and oil; but the great polar bear is almost as bad as men, and delights in a little baby walrus for dinner above all other things.
When Mamma Walrus sees any powerful enemy trying to catch her baby, she rushes to it, takes it under her flipper, and scuds away through the water as fast as she can. If she is overtaken, she calls all her friends about her, and then woe betide the pursuer, for the angry animals can use their tusks with terrible effect. 'They have often attacked a boat full of men, and not ceased to fight until the boat was destroyed and the men drowned.
The reason why the walrus does not mind the cold water and the ice is, that it has a thick coating of oily fat under its thick hide, and that keeps it warmer than the warmest furs could make you or me.—
John R. Coryell