34 ODOB^ENUS ROSMARUS ATLANTIC WALRUS. 



covered by " scars and bald warty patches," and that the skin 

 itself was thrown into " welts and folds " on the neck and shoul- 

 ders. 



Mr. Brown further says that " the very circumstantial account 

 of the number of mystacial bristles given in some accounts is 

 most erroneous ; they vary in the number of rows and in the 

 number in each row in almost every specimen. They are ele- 

 vated on a minute tubercle, and the spaces between these bris- 

 tles are covered with downy whitish hairs."* 



Many other writers also note the scars and warty patches and 

 partial absence of hair referred to above by Dr. Gilpin. Mr. 

 Brown, in speaking of those he met with in Davis Straits, says : 

 " I have seen an old Walrus quite spotted with leprous-looking 

 marks consisting of irregular tubercular-looking white carti- 

 laginous hairless blotches ; they appeared to be the cicatrices 

 of wounds inflicted at different times by ice, the claws of the 

 Polar Bear, Or met with in the wear and tear of the rough-and- 

 tumble life a Sea-horse must lead in 1ST. lat. 74."* Mr. Laniont 

 further adds that in the Spitsbergen seas the "old bulls are 

 always very light-colored, from being nearly devoid of hair 5 

 their skins are rough and rugose, like that of a Ehinoceros, 

 and they are generally quite covered with scars and wounds, 

 inflicted by harpoons, lances, and bullets which they have 

 escaped from, as well as by the tusks of one another in fights 

 among themselves.''! From these reports, especially that of 

 Mr. Brown, Dr. Muriel has inferred that the Walrus is subject 

 to skin diseases, and that the " glandular spots " thus produced 

 are mistaken "for healed cutaneous wounds." However this 

 may be, it is pretty well established that many of these marks 

 are really scars of wounds. 



Eespectiug other external characters, especially the tusks, 

 and their variations with age, sex, and accidental causes, I 

 transcribe the following from Mr. Lament's entertaining book, 

 which will be found so freely quoted in subsequent pages : 

 " Old bulls," lie observes, " very frequently have one or both 

 of their tusks broken, which may arise from using them to assist 



in clambering up the ice and rocks The calf has no 



tusks the first year, but the second year, when he has attained 

 to about the size of a large Seal, he has a pair about as large as 



*Proc. Zool. Soc. Loiid., 1868, p. 428. 

 t Seasons with the Sea-horses, p. 137. 

 t Trans. Zool. Soc. Loud., vol. vii, 1872, p. 422. 



