58 ODOBiENUS 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.f These writers 

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

 sponding i^oriion of the skull of the existing Walrus, to which 

 they doulitfidly referred it ; but later it was regarded by DeKay 

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

 Triclieclius virgmianus.X In 1844, Lyell described a tusk ob- 

 tained from the Tertiary Clays of, Gardiner, Maine, Avhich 

 Owen regarded as x)robably belonging to an extinct sijecies. 

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

 Massachusetts. He desciibes this skull as " differing from skulls 

 of the existing species [Tricheehus rosmariis, Linn.), with which 

 it was comi)ared by Professor Owen, in having only six molafs 

 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 Avalrus." ^ 



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 skidl) 

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

 first-named specimen, says Dr. Leidy, " has lost a x^ortion of the 

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

 wise, excex)t being a little water- worn, is in a good state of 

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

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

 are completely obliterated. The form of the facial jiortion of 

 this specimen (corresponds with that of the si^ecimen from Vir- 

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

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

 Walrus, Trichechns rosmarus, as represented in the figures of 

 Daubenton, Cmder, 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. Jouru., vol. xvii, 1834, p. 300. 

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

 $See Packard, Mem. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. i, 18G7, p. 24C. 

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



If As is well known, the existing Walrus lias occasionally only iLe nninlier 

 of teeth found in the Martha's Vineyard specimen. 



**Trans. Am. Phil. Soc, vol. xi, 1857, p. 83, \>]s. iv, v, tig. 1. 



