60 ODOBiENUS ROSMARUS ATLANTIC WALRUS. 



"Tliis specimen," lie says, "is as black as ebony, dense, heavy, 

 and brittle, and is nearly complete, except at tlie tliin border of 

 the pulp cavity. The curvature is slight, and it indicates the 

 tooth to be of the left side." He gives its dimensions or length 

 externally, following the curvature, thirteen inches ; near the 

 root it has an antero-posterior diameter of three and five-eighths 

 inches, and a transverse diameter of one and three-fourths inches, 

 and at the middle the transverse diameter is two and one-eighth 

 inches, while the antero-posterior diameter is about the same as 

 at the base. "In robust character," he adds, "the tusk quite 

 equals those of the largest mature recent skulls which have 

 come under my observation, but is much shorter and more ab- 

 ruptly tapering. The specimen looks like what we might sup- 

 pose the tusks of the living animal would be were they broken 

 oft' near the middle and then worn away little more than one- 

 fourth the length in a curved line deflected from the course of 

 the anterior longitudinal convexity to the tip. The comparative 

 bre^dty of the tusk and its worn condition at the end may per- 

 hai^s have depended upon just such an accident and subsequent 

 wear. In a mature skull from the shore of Sable Island, and 

 preserved in the Museum of the Academy, the tusks, which are 

 of the usual size, are worn in the same manner as the Ashley 

 si)ecimen for more than half their length." 



After describing in detail the fluting of the tusks, and the 

 variatio]! noticeable in this respect in different skuUs of the liv- 

 ing Wakus, he concludes that, while the fluting differs some- 

 what in the fossil tusks from that usually seen in the tusks of 

 the existing animal, these differences cannot be considered as 

 having specific value. In referring to DeKay's " Trichechus vir- 

 ginianus^^^ he says: "ISTo remains of an undoubtedly extinct 

 species known to me have been discovered anywhere." He 

 finally adds, respecting the Ashley fossil, that "it is an iater- 

 estiug fact to have learned that this [the li%ing] or a closely re- 

 lated species formerly existed so far south as the Ashley River, 

 South Carolma."* 



The discovery of the greater part of the skeleton of a Walrus, 

 including the skull, with the tusks over five inches long, and all 

 the teeth except two, in the Quaternary Clays at Portland, 

 Me., was made dm^ing July of the present year (1878). It was 

 found in excavating for the foundation of the new "Boston & 

 Maine" transfer station, at about seven feet from the surface. 



*" Jouru. Acad. Nat. Sci. PMla., 2cl ser., vol. viii, 1877, pp. 214-216, pi. 

 XXX, fiii;. C). 



