58 ODOB^ENUS ROSMARUS ATLANTIC WALRUS. 



1828,* a specimen consisting of the anterior portion of a skull, 

 found on the sea-beach in Accomac County, Virginia. The same 

 specimen was also described later by Harlan.t These writers 

 all considered it as bearing the closest resemblance to the corre- 

 sponding portion of the skull of the existing Walrus, to which 

 they doubtfully referred it ; but later it was regarded by DcKay 

 as representing a distinct species, to which he gave the name 

 Trichechus mrginlanus.$ In 1844, Lyell described a tusk ob- 

 tained from the Tertiary Clays of Gardiner, Maine, which 

 Owen regarded as probably belonging to an extinct species. 

 Lyell 1 1 also refers to a skull he obtained at Martha's Vineyard, 

 Massachusetts. He describes this skull as i ' differing from skulls 

 of the existing species (Trichechus rosmarm, Linn.), with which 

 it was compared by Professor Owen, in having only six molars 

 and two tusks, whereas those of the recent have four molars on 

 each side, besides occasionally a rudimentary one. The front 

 tusk is rounder than that of the recent walrus." fl 



In 1857, Dr. Leidy** described and figured a skull found on 

 the sea-beach at Long Branch, Monmouth County, New Jersey, 

 where it was obtained by Prof. J. F. Frazer in 1853, and refers 

 to another specimen (consisting of the facial portion of a skull) 

 discovered at the same locality by Prof. Geo. H. Cook. The 

 first-named specimen, says Dr. Leidy, " has lost a portion of the 

 cranium proper, and the exserted portion of one tusk, but other- 

 wise, except being a little water- worn, is in a good state of 

 preservation. It is unchanged in texture, and nearly so in 

 colour 5 and it belonged to an old individual, as all the sutures 

 are completely obliterated. The form of the facial portion of 

 this specimen corresponds with that of the specimen from Vir- 

 ginia, [described by DeKay and preceding writers,] above men- 

 tioned ; and the entire skull closely resembles that of the recent 

 Walrus, Trichechus rosmarus, as represented in the figures of 

 Daubenton, Cuvier, and De Blainville ; and its measurements 

 are also sufficiently near those given by the first-named author 

 to recognize it as the same species. 



* Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. New York, vol. ii, 1828, p. 271. 

 tEdiub. New Phil. Journ., vol. xvii, 1834, p. 3CO. 

 tNat. Hist. New York, Zoology, pt. i, 1842, p. 56, pi. xix, figs. 1, a, b. 

 See Packard, Mem. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. i, 18C7, p. 24G. 

 || Amer. Journ. Sci. and Arts, vol. xlvi, 1844, p. 319. 



IT As is Avell known, the existing Walrus has occasionally only the nmnler 

 of teeth found in the Martha's Vineyard specimen. 



** Trans. Am. Phil. Soc., vol. xi, 1857, p. 83, pis. iv, v, fig. 1. 



