146 ODOB^NUS ROSMARUS ATLANTIC WALRUS. 



across the tropics, to London, but lived there for more than a 

 year,* and finally died " from natural causes. 7 ' 



Since writing the above I have met with the following from 

 the pen of Mr. Alfred Newton, respecting the feasibility of ob- 

 taining living specimens of the Walrus for the Gardens of the 

 London Zoological Society. Referring to the specimen taken to 

 London in 1608, Mr. Newton says: "Now surely what a rude 

 skipper, in the days of James I, could without any preparation 

 accomplish, this Society ought to have no difficulty in effecting ; 

 and I trust that the example may not be lost upon those who 

 control our operations. From inquiries I have made, I find it is 

 quite the exception for any year to pass without an opportu- 

 nity of capturing alive one or more young examples of Triche- 

 chus rosmarus occurring to the twenty or thirty ships which 

 annually sail from the northern ports of Norway, to pursue this 

 animal in the Spitsbergen seas. It has several times happened 

 that young Walruses thus taken are brought to Hammerfest j 

 but, the voyage ended, they are sold to the first purchaser, gen- 

 erally for a very trifling sum, and, their food and accommodation 

 not being duly considered, they of course soon die. Lord 

 Dufferin brought one which had been taken to Bergen, and 

 succeeded in bringing it alive to Ullapooljt and Mr. Larnont 

 mentions another which he saw in the possession of Captain 

 Erichson. f In making an attempt to place a live Walrus in 

 our Gardens, I do not think we ought to be discouraged by the 

 bad luck which has attended our efforts in the case of the larger 

 marine Mammalia. Every person I have spoken with on the 

 subject corroborates the account given by honest Master Wei- 

 den of the ' strange docilitie' of this beast j and that in a mere 

 financial point of view the attempt would be worth undertaking 

 is, I think, manifest. To the general public perhaps the most 

 permanently attractive animals exhibited in our Gardens are 

 the Hippopotamuses and the Seals. What then would be the 

 case of a species like the Walrus, wherein the active intelli- 

 gence of the latter is added to the powerful bulk of the for- 

 mer ?" 



Since Mr. Newton wrote the above, another specimen has 

 reached London, as already detailed, but this was ten years 



* See Mnrie, Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond., vol. vii, 1872, p. 528. 

 t " Letters from High Latitudes, pp. 387-389." 

 t " Seasons with the Sea-horses, pp. 26, 27." 

 $ Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1864, p. 500. 



