MEASUREMENTS AND EXTERNAL CHARACTERS. 151 



Respecting the size and external dimensions, Mr. Elliott says ? 

 "the adult male is about 12 feet in length from nostrils to tip 

 of tail [probably in a curved line over the inequalities of the 

 surface] and has 10 or 12 feet of girth, and an old bull, shot by 

 the natives on Walrus Island, July 5, 1872, was nearly 13* feet 

 long, with the enormous girth of 14 feet. The immense mass 

 of blubber on the shoulders and around the neck makes the 

 head and posteriors look small in proportion and attenuated."* 

 He estimates the gross weight of a well-conditioned old bull at 

 "two thousand pounds," the skin alone weighing from "two 

 hundred and fifty to four hundred pounds," and the head "from 

 sixty to eighty." The head, he adds, will measure eighteen 

 inches in length from between the nostrils to the occiput.! 



Captain Cook says the weight of one, " which was none of the 

 largest," was eleven hundred pounds without the entrails, the 

 head weighing forty-two and the skin two hundred and five. 

 Of this specimen he gives the following measurements: 



Ft. In. 



Length from the snout to the tail 9 4 



Length of the neck from the snout to the shoulder-bone 2 6 



Height of the shoulder 5 



i fore 2 4 



Length of the fins < n 



(hind 2 6 



fore 1 2i 



hind 2 



(breadth 5 



Snout { . , . 10 



(depth 1 3 



Circumference of the neck close to the ears 2 7 



Circumference of the body at the shoulder 7 10 



Circumference near the hind fins 5 6 



From the snout to the eyes 7| 



This was evidently either a female or not fully grown. The 

 circumference, as here given, is somewhat less than the length. 



Eespecting the external appearance of the old males as ob- 

 served in life by Mr. Elliott on Walrus Island, Mr. Elliott says : 

 " I was surprised to observe the raw, naked appearance of the 

 hide, a skin covered with a multitude of pustular-looking warts 

 and pimples, without hair or fur, deeply wrinkled, with dark 

 red venous lines, showing out in bold contrast through the thick 

 yellowish-brown cuticle, which seemed to be scaling off in 

 places as if with leprosy. They struck my eye at first in a 



* This is well shown in Mr. Elliott's figures. 



t Condition of Affairs in Alaska, pp. 161, 162. 



t Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, etc., vol. ii, p. 459. 



Breadth of the fins J 



