Wanna profess your love for the tooth-walkers and still maintain your hip indie street cred? This shirt might do the trick. No one will mess with this walrus!
The Voodoo Walrus is a webcomic, which according to their site (and my experience) has “nothing to do with walruses and very little to do with voodoo, the design still remains surreal and iconic in its randomness.” Note that the Voodoo Walrus webcomic is an adult-oriented affair. This doesn’t necessarily mean “adult” in the nudity and cursing sense, but you don’t want to call the kids over…
I’ve always found it fascinating to read textbooks about animals, people or places that were written back in the 1800’s (or earlier) since there was so much colorful speculation used in place of actual science. Plus, I really enjoy the engravings that are found in works of that era. So I found myself thinking, on the way to lunch today, “I wonder if I can find a book with an account of the first recorded observations of a walrus?” That may be a tall order – I’ll start a quest – but I certainly did find an antique account of Walrus, thanks to Harvard University and the Google book digitization project.
The Naturalist’s Library from 1857 (well, this edition of what looks to be an expansive series) tells us:
The name of sea cow, or sea horse, by which the walrus is most generally known, has been very wrongly applied ; since the animal which it denotes has not the least resemblance to the land animals of that name: 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.
and later…
Captain Cook saw a herd of them floating on an ice island off the northern coasts of the American continent. ” They lie,” says he, ” in herds of many hundreds, upon the ice, huddling over one another like swine ; and roar or bray so loud, that in the night, or in foggy weather, they gave us notice of the vicinity of the ice before we could see it. We never found the whole herd asleep, some being always on the watch.”
These are just a few select quotes. Take a look at the whole passage at the link below – it’s only about two pages, but it’s an interesting read. You’ll note that the “scientific” facts cited are clearly drawn from, and directed towards, hunters.