158 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



Helplessness on land. — In moving on land they do not seem to 

 have any physical power in the hind limbs; these are usually dragged 

 and twitched up behind, or feebly flattened out at right angles to the 

 body; terrestrial progression is slowly and tediously made by a drag- 

 ging succession of short steps forward on the fore feet; but if the 

 alarm is given it is astonishing to note the contrast which they pre- 

 sent in their method of getting back to sea; they fairly roll and hustle 

 themselves over and into the waves. 



How long they remain out from the water in this country I am 

 unable to say; but, stored up as they are with such an enormous sup- 

 j)ly of surplus fat, dull and sluggish in temperament, I should think 

 that they could sustain a fasting period equal to that of the Ofariidce, 

 if not suj^erior to them in endurance. 



These adult males befoi'e me looked very much larger than I expected 

 to find the walrus,^ and it was fortunate for the accuracy and good 

 sense of these notes now jjublished, that one of the natives kindly 

 volunteered to shoot any of the bulls which I might select, after I 

 should have finished my sketching and writing. I therefore, when 

 my drawings were completed, selected the largest animal in the grouj); 

 and promptly at my signal a rifle ball crashed into the skull at the 

 only place where it could enter, just on the line of the eye and the 

 ear, midway between them. 



Great size op the walrus. — This animal, thus slain, certainly was 

 the largest one of the entire herd, and the following measurements and 

 notes can therefore be relied upon: It measured 12 feet 7 inches from 

 its bluflf nostrils to the tip of its excessively abbreviated tail, which was 

 not more than 2^ or 3 inches long; it had the surprising girth of 14 

 feet. The immense mass of blubber on the shoulders and around the 

 neck made the head look strangely small in proportion and the poste- 

 riors decidedly attenuated; indeed, the whole weight of the animal 

 was bound ui? in its girth anteriorly. It was a phj^sical impossibility 

 for me to weigh this brute, and I therefore can do nothing but make 

 a guess, having this fact to guide me, that the head, cut directly off 

 at the junction with the spine, or the occipital or atlas joint, weighed 

 80 pounds; that the skin, Avhicli I carefully removed with the aid of 

 these natives, with the head, weighed 570 pounds. Deducting the 

 Iiead and excluding the flippers, I think it is safe to say that the skin 

 itself would not weigh less than 350 pounds, and the animal could not 

 weigh much less than a ton — from 2,000 to 2,200 pounds. 



Characteristics of head. — The head has a decided flattened 

 appearance, for the nostrils, eyes, and ear spots seem to be placed 



' The most satisfactory result that I can obtain from a careful study of what is 

 on record as to the length of the adult male Atlantic walrus is a mean of 10 feet 7 

 inches, while my observations on Walrus Island give the Bering Sea juale adult 

 walrus an average of 11 feet. The only two examples which I measured were both 

 over this figure, viz, 11 feet 9 inches and 12 feet 7 inches, from tip of muzzle to the 

 sldnny nodule or excrescence, scientifically known as the tail; but they were 

 striking exceptions in superior size to all the others in the large herd of old males 

 before my eyes at the time, and were singled out for shooting on that score. I 

 fully realize this, because in July, 1874, when I i-evisited Walrus Island, I caused 

 a younger male, and ono tolerably well haired over with a very dark brown and 

 short coat to be shot. When measured it gave a length of only 10 feet 9 inches, 

 and would not weigh, in my best estimation, more than 1,200 to 1,500 pounds. It 

 was, however, fully matured. Thus the "greater size" which I recognized in 

 1872 means an increased length of 5 or 6 inches to the Alaska form, with a 

 relative greater avoirdupois. The complete and unifurm unhairing of the old 

 Alaskan male Odobcenua is another very characteristic feature in different 

 expression from Atlantic herds. 



