Citations:walrus

English citations of walrus

Noun: "a large Arctic marine mammal"

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• 1729 — The Pennsylvania Gazette: Weekly Magazine of the University of Pennsylvania, Volume 27, page 610.

  A thick covering of sod had been placed over the roofs and the walls, and the skylight which had been cut into each roof was covered with seal or walrus entails.

• 1754 — Jean Lévesque de Burigny (translated by A. Miller), The Life of the Truly Eminent and Learned Hugo Grotius, page 29.

  Two vessels had sailed from Amsterdam to Greenland to kill walrus, a sea-animal, larger than an ox, with the muzzle of a lion, the skin covered with hair, four feet, and two large teeth in the upper jaw, flat, hard, and so white that in colour and value they equal those of the elephant: some even give them the preference, because, besides their exceeding whiteness, they are not subject to grow yellow.

• 1792 — Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (translated by J.S. Barr), Buffon's Natural History, Volume 9, page 78.

  The name of Sea-Cow, by which the Walrus (fig. 193) is most generally known, has been very wrongly applied, since the animal it denotes has not the least resemblance to a cow: the denomination of Sea-Elephant, which others have given it is much better imagined, as it is founded on a singular and very apparent character.

• 1820 — William Scoresby An account of the Arctic regions, with a history and description of the Northern Whale-fishery, Volume 1, page 502.

  The walrus, being a slow, clumsy animal on land, its tusks seem necessary for its defence against the bear, and also for enabling it to raise its unweildy^[sic] body upon the ice, when its access to the shore is prevented.

• 1824 — The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal — Volume 11, page 219.

  Sir E. Home, in a paper read before the Royal Society of London, mentions several facts he has discovered in regard to the walrus and seal. The first discovery was, that the walrus is provided with means similar to those of the fly, which enable it to walk in an inverted position.

• 1887 — James W. Buel, Sea and Land, page 251.

  Of all the Phocine family none present so terrible and grotesque an appearance as the gigantic Walrus, also known as the morse and sea-horse.

• 1922 — Clara Kern Bayliss, A Treasury of Eskimo Tales, Chapter VII, The Torrint.

  They ate walrus, deer, and seal, and when they went sealing in the winter they fastened the lower edge of their coat to the snow by means of pegs.

• 1994 — Erik W. Born, Mads-Peter Heide-Jørgensen, Rolph Aubrey Davis, The Atlantic walrus (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) in West Greenland, page 28.

  Increased fishing and hunting activity along the west coast of Greenland during the same period also may have influenced the walrus migration.

• 1998 — Tom Kizzia, The Wake of the Unseen Object: Travels Through Alaska's Native Landscapes, page 140.

  Another source of friction was walrus. Though less important to Bristol Bav Yup'ik than to the northwestern Inupiat around Wales or the Siberian Yup'ik of St. Lawrence Island, the walrus had been a traditional part of the diet of Togiak, particularly important as dogfood in the days of sleigh transportation.

• 2009 — William F. Perrin, Bernd Würsig, Johannes G.M. Thewissen, Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, page 1212.

  The genus Odobenus consists of only one species: O. rosmarus. Two sub-species are recognized based on morphological characteristics and on mitochondrial DNA divergence: the Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens Illiger 1815) and the Atlantic walrus (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus Linnaeus 1758). A potential third sub-species, the Laptev walrus (Odobenus rosmarus laptevi Chapski 1940) is dubiously distinct from Odobenus rosmarus divergens.