WILD ANIMALS. 107 of their number be killed, they do not seem ever to intend hurting the men. About forty years ago a crew of Acadian Frenchmen, in a schooner from Prince Edward 's Island, caught and killed a young walrus, in the Gulf of Lawrence. A little time after, as one of the men was skinning it in the boat alongside the vessel, an old walrus rose vip, and got hold of the man between the tusks and fore-fins, or flippers, and plunged down under water with him, and afterwards showed itself three or four times with the unfortunate man in the same position, before it disappeared altogether.* They have been known at times to enter some distance into the woods ; and persons acquainted with the manner of killing them, have got between them and the sea, and urged them on with a sharp-pointed pole, until they got the whole drove a sufficient distance from the water, when they fell to and killed these immense animals, inca¬ pable of resistance out of their element. It is said, that on being attacked in this manner, and finding themselves unable to escape, they have set up a most piteous howl and cry. There are apparently five or six varieties of seals that frequent the coasts of , but, with the exception of the harbour seal (phoca vitulina), which does not seem to be migratory, it is probable that age and accident produce the difference in size, shape, and colour, that has occasioned their being classed in * This circumstance is well known, and was related to me several times by the ill-fated man's brother, who was, at the time of the melancholy circumstance, on board the schooner.