272 Discovery of a fossil Walrus in Virginia. 



marks of having been in the salt water, and is said to have 

 been found on the sea beach, where it has probably been 

 washed out of its bed by the waves. That it is a fossil, and 

 not a recent skull, we think there can be no doubt. The 

 change which the substance of the teeth has undergone, and 

 the appearance which the whole bears of having long lain 

 buried in the earth, are sufficient proofs of this. More- 

 over, the country in the vicinity whence it was sent, is 

 known to belong to a marine formation ; and ribs and other 

 parts of a vertebrated animal have been dug up there, which 

 were supposed to be those of a species of Lamantin or Ma- 

 nati, an animal related to the Morse. 



Fossil bones of the Morse are exceedingly rare. This is in 

 fact the first instance in which any portion so considerable has 

 been found ; and it is only in the notes to the concluding 

 volume of his great work, that Cuvier admits that there is 

 any evidence of this animal having ever been met with in a 

 fossil state. He there mentions a few molar teeth and pieces 

 of bone disinterred in France, which, in his opinion, belong 

 to the Morse. 



The existing species inhabits the northern parts of the 

 Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, chiefly frequenting the regions 

 near the Arctic Circle. It has also been seen in the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence, in latitude 47° or 48°, but is not known to 

 wander to the southward of this. 



Whether or not our fossil head is to be referred to this 

 species, we have not sufficient materials to enable us to 

 decide with certainty ; but it is not improbable that a more 

 extensive comparison than we yet have the means of making, 

 will demonstrate it to belong to another, now no longer in 

 existence. 



