152 ODOB^NUS OBESUS PACIFIC WALEUS. 



most unpleasant manner, for tliey looked like bloated, mortify- 

 ing, shapeless masses of flesh ; the clusters of swollen, warty 

 l^imples, of a yellow, parboiled flesli-color, over the shoulders 

 and around the neck, suggested unwholesomeness forcibly."* 

 The old male, in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, of which 

 measurements are given above, is almost wholly naked, except 

 about the numerous old healed gashes and scars, which are 

 generally bordered with very short, stiff, brownish hair. Cap- 

 tain Scammon, however, who has also observed them in their 

 native waters, states that the hair that covers " most individu- 

 als is short and of a dark brown ; yet there is no lack of exam- 

 ples where it is of a much lighter shade, or of a light dingy 

 gray. . . . The young, however, before its cumbrous canines 

 protrude . . . is of a black color." t 



The mystacial bristles appear to vary in length in diflerent 

 individuals. Pallas's figure of a rather young animal represents 

 them as thick and long. In the old specimen in the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology they are very short, and do not form a very 

 prominent feature of the physiognomy. On the upper i)art of 

 the muzzle they are merely short, small-pointed spines, one- 

 fourth to one-half or three-quarters of an inch in length ; they 

 increase somewhat in length toward the edge of the lip, where 

 the longest obtain a length of about two inches. They are quite 

 slender, the coarsest having a diameter of not more than eight 

 one-hundredths of an inch. 



Captain Scammon states that " The cheeks are studded wdth 

 four or five hundred spines or whiskers, some of which are rudi- 

 mentary, while others grow to the length of three or four inches. 

 They are transparent, curved, abruptly pointed, and about the 

 size of a straw, but not twisted, as has been stated by some 

 writers." f Mr. Elliott describes them as being " short, stubbed, 

 gray- white bristles, from one-half to three inches long." The 

 descriptions of the bristles of the Atlantic Walrus, as given by 

 numerous writers, agree in representing them as much longer 

 and thicker than in the Pacific species, the dimensions usually 

 assigned being a length of four or five inches, or even, in some 

 cases, six, and about one-twelfth of an inch thick. The figures 

 and descriptions commonly rei^resent them as forming, by their 



* Coudition of Affaii's iu Alaska, p. 160. 



t Marine Mammalia, p. 177. 



I Marine Mammalia, -p. 176. 



Condition of Affairs iu Alaska, p. 161. 



