176 ODOB^NUS OBE-SUS PACIFIC WALEUS. 







in 1823. Cook, in 1799, found them numerous in the neighbor- 

 hood of Icy Cape. They were also met with by Beechey on 

 Diomede and Saint Lawrence Islands, and on other islands 

 more to the southward.* Liitke found great herds at Saint 

 Mathew's Island, in latitude 60,t where their teeth were seen 

 later by Billings.J They formerly resorted in summer in large 

 numbers to Saint Paul's and Saint George's Islands, where, ac- 

 cording to Sarytschew, 28,000 pounds of their teeth were ob- 

 tained in a single year. They still resort, in small numbers, to a 

 neighboring islet (Walrus Island), and even to the easternmost of 

 the Aleutian chain, as will be presently more fully noted. For- 

 merly they were also abundant on Nuuivak Island, situated to 

 the eastward of Mathew's Island, and not far from the Alaskan 

 coast. 



On the coast of the mainland they have been met with in 

 great herds at different times in Kotzebue and Norton Sounds 

 and in Bristol Bay. Captain Cook appears not to have ob- 

 served them south of latitude 58 42', at which point he found 

 them in Bristol Bay, as well as more to the northward. There 

 appears to be no certain proof that they were in early times ever 

 met with on the outermost of the Aleutian Islands, || and no 

 early reference to their occurrence anywhere south of Bristol 

 Bay and the Prybilov Islands. Brown, however, as late as 

 1868, says: " On the northwest coast of America I have known 

 it to come as far south as 50 north latitude."^} Of this I can 

 find only a partial confirmation, and think that possibly there is 

 a mistake in respect to the latitude here given.** Elliott says, 



* Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific aud Behring's Straits, vol. ii, p. 271. 



t Voyage autour du Monde, toin. ii, p. 176. 



t Sauer's Account of Billings' Exped. to the North Parts of Eussia, p. 235. 



Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, etc., vol. i, pp. 433, 455, 457; vol. ii, pp. 

 245, 248, 249, 259. 



|| On this point, see von Baer, 1. c., p. 182. 



1[ Proc. Zool. Soc. Loud., 1868, p. 432. 



** Mr. Brown further states in the same connection that "It [the Walrus] 

 is found all along tlie clrcumpolar shores of Asia, America and Europe" and that 

 "It is not unlikely that it may even be found in the Antarctic regions" ! L. c., p. 

 432. This idea I haA^e not seen elsewhere revived since the early part of the 

 present century. (On this point see von Baer, 1. c., p. 173, and footnote.) 

 Dr. Gray refers to the reported occurrence by Bonelli of "Sea Horses" on 

 the Island of Saint Lorenzo, Callao. As this author describes "the two 

 great white tusks projecting from the mouth on either side," and further 

 says that "the tusks are of great value and form an important article of 

 commerce/' Dr. Gray concludes these remarks "cannot apply to the tusks 

 of the Sea Bear"; but he adds that he had "nevrr heard of the genus Triclie- 



