FIGURES. 105 



limbs are turned backward, as iu the common Seals. A view 

 of the muzzle forms a second figure, and the form of one of the 

 fore limbs is given in outline. 



Wells, in Ms "Gatewaj^ to the Polynia,"' published in 1873, 

 gives a plate (facing page 201) in illustration of the Walrus. 

 The figure in the foreground represents an individual flat on 

 its belly with all the limbs directed posteriorly. Other figures 

 represent other individuals reposing in various attitudes. 



The above-enumerated figures of the Walrus embrace all the 

 original figures of the Atlantic species thus far known to me, and 

 all to which I have seen references, so far as figures of the entire 

 animal are concerned. In recapitulation, it may be stated that 

 Gesner's fignire, published in 1558, is the first that had an actual 

 foundation in nature, all the preceding (the mythical ones of 

 Olaus Magnus) being purely fictitious or based on erroneous 

 conceptions. Gesner's, as already noticed, was a curious combi- 

 nation of reality with myth, the head only being drawn from 

 nature, and a fanciful body added ! The first really drawn from 

 nature (" ad vivum ") was Hessel Gerard's excellent figure pub- 

 lished in 1613. Subsequently ai)peared numerous figures in the 

 works of travellers, drawn apparently either from memory or by 

 artists who had never seen the animal they so confidently 

 attempted to depict. 



The first representation based on a museum specimen appears 

 to have been Buffon's, in 1765, which has been aptly described 

 as being merely a common Seal with tusks. Other figures fol- 

 lowed later, as those in the so-called " Disciples edition" of Cu- 

 vier's Eegne Animal, and in the two already cited volumes of 

 Jardine's Naturalist's Library, drawn also from stuffed speci- 

 mens, in which the hind limbs were always placed in a wholly 

 false attitude, though in other res]Dects passably fair figures. Not 

 until a li\dng specimen reached London, in 1853, did the cor- 

 rect attitudes of the animal and the natural position of the hind 

 limbs become generally known to naturalists, and not until 

 then was the truthfulness of Gerard's early figure duly recog- 

 nized and appreciated, notwithstanding that von Baer, nearly 

 twenty years earlier, testified to its excellence, and correctly 

 described the flexibility of the bmbs. Now, through the two 

 living specimens seen and figured in London, and through 

 excellent recent figures of the Pacific Walrus, the attitudes and 

 external bearing of few of our marine mammalia are better 

 known than those of the Walruses. 



