62 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



above the waves, then another, and another. A 

 number of dark objects are seen swimming well and 

 strongly towards the shore. Then, as the animals 

 crowd up towards the beach, the sea is alive with 

 savage-looking, spouting, bellowing heads. For a 

 moment the water boils in swirling commotion; then, 

 waddling and grunting, the beasts quit the water, 

 huge, hairless creatures, battle-scarred and heavily 

 armed with long white tusks. Tediously they jerk 

 their dripping bodies over the foreshore, and in a 

 dense-packed mass, compose themselves to sleep 

 a herd of Pacific walruses. 



The Pacific walrus (Odobcenus obesus] attains a 

 total length of twelve to fifteen feet, a girth of about 

 twelve feet, and approximate weight of two thousand 

 pounds; the skin alone, thick and heavy as a giraffe's, 

 weighs from two hundred and fifty to four hundred 

 pounds, and is two or three inches thick on the neck 

 and shoulders. The head of this species is remarkably 

 flat ; seen from the front, the massive bony sockets 

 of the tusks give a curious square appearance to the 

 muzzle, while the true cranium behind rises in a gentle 

 dome that detracts but little from the quaint, almost 

 geometric construction of the skull. As in the 

 hippopotamus, nostril, eye, and ear are situated near 

 the top of the head ; the nostrils are oval in shape 

 and open directly over the muzzle. Resembling in 

 general outlines a clumsy seal, the Pacific walrus has 

 the neck and shoulders so thickly overladen with 



