96 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



for the accuracy and good sense of these notes now published, that one of the natives kindly volunteered to shoot 

 any of the bulls, of 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 group; 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 of 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 bluff 

 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 11 feet. The immense mass of blubber on the shoulders and around the neck made the head 

 look strangely small in proportion, and the posteriors decidedly attenuated; indeed, the whole weight of the 

 animal was bound up in its girth anteriorly; it was a physical 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, which I carefully removed 

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



Characters of head. — The head has a decided flattened appearance, for the nostrils, eyes, and ear-spots 

 seem to be placed nearly on top of the cranium ; the nasal apertures are literally so, opening directly over the 

 muzzle; they are oval, ami closed parallel with the longitudinal axis of the skull, and when dilated are about an 

 inch in their greatest diameter. 



The tusks, or canines, are set firmly under the nostril-apertures in deep, massive, bony pockets, giving that 

 strange, broad, square-cut front of the muzzle, so characteristic to the physiognomy. 



The upper lips of the walrus of Bering sea are exceedingly thick and gristly, and the bluff, square muzzle is 

 studded, in regular rows and intervals, with a hundred or so short, stubby, gray white bristles, varying in length 

 from one half to three inches. There are a few very short and much softer bristles set, also, on the fairly hidden 

 chin of the lower jaw, which closes up under the projectiug snout and muzzle, and is nearly concealed by the 

 enormous tushes, when laterally viewed. 



Peculiarities of the eyes. — The eyes are small, but prominent; placed nearly ou top of the head, and 

 protruding from their sockets, bulge like those of the lobster. The iris and pupil of this eye is less than one-fourth 

 of the exposed surface ; the sclerotic coat swells out from under the lids when they are opened, and is of a dirty, 

 mottled, coffee-yellow and brown, with an occasional admixture of white; the iris itself is light brown, with dark 

 brown rays and spots. I noticed that whenever the animal roused itself, instead of turning its head, it rolled its eyes 

 about, seldom moving the cranium more than to elevate it. The eyes seem to move, rotating in every direction when 

 the creature is startled, giving the face of this monster a very extraordinary attraction, especially when studied by 

 an artist. The expression is just indescribable. The range of sight enjoyed by the walrus out of water, I can 

 testify, is not well developed; for, after throwing small chips of rock down upon the walruses near me, several of 

 them not being ten feet distant, and causing them only to stupidly stare and give vent to low grunts of astonishment, 

 I then rose gently and silently to my feet, standing boldly up before, them ; but then, even, I was not noticed, though 

 their eyes rolled all over from above to under me. Had I, however, made a little noise, or had I been standing as 

 far as 1,000 yards away from them to the windward, they would have taken the alarm instantly and tumbled off 

 into the sea like so many hustled wool-sacks ; for their sense of smell is of the keen, keenest. 



Acute hearing. — The ears of the walrus, or rather the auricles to the ears, are on the same lateral line at the 

 top of the head with the nostrils and eyes, the latter being just midway between. The pavilion, or auricle, is a mere 

 fleshy wrinkle, or fold, not at all raised or developed; and, from what I could see of the meatus extemus, it was very 

 narrow and small; still, the natives assured me that the Otariidce had no better organs of hearing than "Morsjee". 



Loose setting OF the TUSKS.— The head of the male walrus, to which I have alluded, and from which I 

 afterward removed the skin, was 18 inches long between the nostrils and the post-occipital region ; and, although 

 the enormous tusks seemed to be. so firmly planted in their osseous sockets, judge of my astonishment when one of 

 the younger natives flippantly struck a tusk with a wooden club quite smartly, and then easily jerked the tooth 

 forth. I had frequently observed that it was ditficidt to keep the teeth from rattling out of their alveoli in any of 

 the best skulls I had gathered of the fur-seals and sea-lions; especially difficult in the case of the latter. But 

 again, on this interesting subject of dentition, it is best that I refer to Dr. Allen. Bepetition of his admirable 

 diagnosis is unnecessary here. 



Unusual thickness of the skin. — The thickness of the hide* of the walrus is, after all, in my opinion, its 



1874, when I revisited Walrus island, I caused a younger male, and one 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 live or six 

 inches to the Alaska form, with a relative greater avoirdupois. The complete and uniform unhairing of the old Alaskan male Vduhunus, 

 is another very characteristic feature in different expression from Atlantic herds. 



" While savage man has utilized the tough hide of Rosmarus and Obcsus, the skin was also used by the Russians themselves to cover 

 the packages of furs sent from Sitka to Kiachta, China ; the skin was there stripped and again sewed anew over the chests of tea that were 



