42 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



their immediate ancestors, have been found also in England and Belgium. 

 The Pacific walrus is restricted to a comparatively small extent of the 

 northern coasts of Asia and North America and the islands of the Bering 

 Sea, its northern limit being the unbroken polar ice. This species formerly 

 resorted to the Pribilof, St. Matthew and St. Lawrence islands, and to 

 portions of the coast of Alaska, but their numbers have been greatly re- 

 duced during the last half century. It is stated on the highest authority 

 that for several years preceding 1870 about one hundred thousand pounds 

 of walrus ivory was taken annually, involving a destruction of not less than 

 six thousand walruses. Later statistics show that for many years following 

 this date the catch of walrus in Bering Sea was not far from ten to twelve 

 thousand annually. The wholesale slaughter continued until the herds 

 became so reduced in numbers that their pursuit was commercially un- 

 profitable. This destruction was additional to the number usually killed 

 by the natives to supply their domestic needs and for barter. 



The walruses hold a picturesque place in the annals of natural history, 

 being in early days the subject of many marvelous tales and fantastic 

 pictorial representations. Even the tusks, which were always described 

 as a prominent feature, were in some instances placed in the lower jaw and 

 directed upward, and the hind feet were turned backward as in the common 

 seal instead of forward. The early systematists assigned them to the class 

 of fishes, with the whales and manatees, in accordance with their aquatic 

 mode of life. Although left in the class of fishes by Linne as late as 1758, 



they were recog- 

 nized by various 

 writers as true 

 mammals long be- 

 fore the whales and 

 manatees were dis- 

 sociated from fish- 

 es; but they were 

 still assigned to 

 most unnatural re- 

 lationships. Vari- 

 ous writers as late 

 as the close of the 

 eighteenth century 

 were unaware that 

 the walrus had hind 

 feet; and close re- 

 lationship to the 



Fiom the Museum's walrus group r* ■ i. 



( arnivora was not 

 fully recognized till toward the middle of the nineteenth century. 



