1898.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 197 



With the specimen from Nova Scotia above alluded to is a mem- 

 orandum, evidently penned by the sender and donor of the specimen. 

 It reads : — " Office of School Commissioners, 48 George Street [Hal- 

 ifax], 187[1]. Skull of a walrus (Trichecus rosmarus) Sable 

 Island, Nova Scotia. The walrus is now extinct in Nova Scotia. 

 It was last seen alive on Sable Island sand beaches. There must 

 have been a considerable number on the island, as a great many of 

 their skulls have been thrown up on the beaches at intervals after 

 heavy gales. The specimen sent was found some two years since, 

 and as none have been found since then, I am inclined to think it 

 the last of the series. You will observe that the tusks are partly 

 fossilized. — J. R. W[illis]." This specimen is recorded in the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Academy for 1871, and classified among recent ver- 

 tebrate material. This fact and the tenor of Dr. Leidy's remarks 

 regarding it show that he did not consider it a fossil. This is re- 

 markable, as the specimen is of precisely the same nature in color, 

 texture and specific gravity as the larger fossil specimen which 

 Leid} r described and figured in the Philosophical Transactions, and 

 which came from the beach at Long Branch, New Jersey. Un- 

 doubtedly the Sable Island specimen is of the same age and deriva- 

 tion from an ancient raised sea beach stratum as were the two speci- 

 mens obtained on the shores of New Jersey, the skeleton from the 

 quaternary clays of Portland, Maine, and the type of DeKay's 

 Trichechus virginianus from the sea beach of Accomac County, Vir- 

 ginia. For this reason all of these fossil specimens are taken in the 

 following study as typical of the supposed fossil species of Atlantic 

 walrus as compared with the animal now existing on our North 

 Atlantic Coasts of America. 



Of the four fossil specimens mentioned, three are now in the cus- 

 tody of the Academy of Natural Sciences, the one from Sable Island 

 and the more perfect of the two New Jersey specimens figured by 

 Dr. Leidy, being the property of the Academy. The third specimen 

 is the anterior half of the cranium from Long Branch, loaned to 

 Dr. Leidy by Prof. Geo. Cook, and figured in the Transactions of the 

 Philosophical Society. It was recently purchased from Prof. Ward 

 of Rochester, N. Y., by the New Jersey Geological Survey for its 

 museum at Trenton, and through the courtesy of Prof. J.C. Smock, 

 was loaned to Mr. Lewis Woolman, of Philadelphia, for use in this 

 connection. It is to the efforts of Mr. Woolman and his scientific 

 interest in the work of the Survey, as well as his devotion to original 



