The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals | Page 9

the personification of
gentleness. Its placid countenance indicates no guile, nor means of
offense. Its lustrous gazelle-like eyes, and its soft, woolly fleece
suggest softness of disposition. But in reality no animal is more
deceptive. In a wild state amongst its own kind, or in captivity,--no
matter how considerately treated,--it is a quarrelsome and at times
intractable animal. "A pair of wild guanacos can often be seen or heard
engaged in desperate combat, biting and tearing, and rolling over one
another on the ground, uttering their gurgling, bubbling cries of rage.
Of a pair so engaged, I shot one whose tail had then been bitten off in
the encounter. In confinement, the guanaco charges one with his chest,
or rears up on his hind legs to strike one with his fore-feet, besides
biting and spitting up the contents of the stomach."--Richard Crawshay
in "The Birds of Terra del Fuego."
MENTAL TRAITS AND TEMPER OF THE ATLANTIC WALRUS
Mr. Langdon Gibson, of Schenectady, kindly wrote out for me the
following highly interesting observations on a remarkable arctic animal
with which we are but slightly acquainted:
"In the summer of 1891, as a member of the first Peary Expedition I
had an opportunity of observing some of the traits of the Atlantic
walrus. I found him to be a real animal, of huge size, with an extremely
disagreeable temper and most belligerently inclined. We hunted them
in open whale-boats under the shadows of Greenland's mountain-bound
coast, in the Whale Sound region, Lat. 77 degrees North.
"We hunted among animals never before molested, except by the
Eskimo who (so far as I was able to ascertain) hunt them only during
the winter season on the sea ice. We found animals whose courage and
belief in themselves and their prowess had hitherto been unshaken by
contact with the white man and his ingenious devices of slaughter.

"The walrus has a steady nerve and a thoroughly convincing roar. They
have fought their kind and the elements for centuries and centuries, and
know no fear. This, then, was the animal we sought in order to secure
food for our dog teams. I can conceive of no form of big game hunting
so conducive to great mental excitement and physical activity as walrus
hunting from an open whale-boat. At the completion of such a hunt I
have seen Eskimo so excited and worked up that they were taken
violently sick with vomiting and headache.
"The walrus is a gregarious animal, confederating in herds numbering
from ten to fifty, and in some instances no doubt larger numbers may
be found together. On calm days they rest in unmolested peace on pans
of broken ice which drift up and down the waters of Whale Sound. It is
unfortunate that no soundings were taken in the region where the
walrus were found, as a knowledge of the depth of water would have
furnished some information as to the distances to which the animal will
dive in search of food.
"The stomachs of all half- and full-grown walrus taken in Whale Sound
were without exception well filled with freshly opened clams, with
very few fragments of shells in evidence; the removal of the clam from
the shell being as neatly accomplished as though done by an expert
oysterman.
"In most cases these segregated herds of walrus were in charge of a
large bull who generally occupied a central position in the mass of
animals. Upon approaching such a herd for the first time, and when
within about 200 feet, a large bull would lift his head, sniff audibly in
our direction and give a loud grunt which apparently struck a
responsive chord in the other sleeping animals. They would grunt in
unison, in more subdued tones, after which the old walrus would drop
his head to resume his interrupted nap. Their contempt for us was
somewhat disconcerting.
"At the first crack of a rifle, however, the animals immediately aroused,
and then during the fusillade which followed there occurred what might
be called an orderly scramble for the water. In the first place the young
ones were hustled to the edge of the ice-pan, and there, apparently

under the protection of the mother's flipper, pushed into the water,
immediately followed by the mother. The young bulls followed, and I
recall no exceptions where the last animal into the water was not the
big bull, who before diving would give our boat a wicked look and a
roar of rage.
"The animals would immediately dive, and then we first became aware
of a remarkable phenomenon. We found that when excited they would
continue their roaring under water, and these strange sounds coming to
us from below added considerably to the excitement of the chase.
Although the cows and young animals would generally swim to places