GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 175 



a still smaller portion of the opposite American coast. To the 

 westward the Walrus appears not to have been traced beyond 

 ape Schelatskoi (157o 30' east longitude), and to have occurred 

 in large herds only as far west as Koljutschin Island (185 east 

 longitude). These herds are reported as composed almost solely 

 of males, the females rarely passing beyond the mouth of the 

 Kolyma Eiver.* Wrangell, who passed two winters at the 

 mouth of the Kolyma River, asserts confidently that the Wal- 

 rus of Behring's Straits were abundant at Cape Jakan (170 30' 

 east longitude), but only once reached Cape Schelatskoi, while 

 he found them numerous at Koljutschin Island. Thence east- 

 ward they form the chief subsistence of the Tschutschi.t 



On the eastern coast of Asia, Steller (according to von Baer) 

 reports that as early as 1742 none were killed by the Russians 

 south of Karaginskoi Island in latitude 60. He reports, how- 

 ever, finding one on the southern point of Kamtschatka, but von 

 Baer questions whether in this isolated instance of its supposed 

 occurrence so far south there may not be some mistake, and 

 that the animal was really a large Seal or a Sea-cow {Bliytina).X 

 Krashinninikow states that in his day they were confined to the 

 northern seas. He says, "On voit pen de chevaux marins dans 

 les environs de Kamtschafl-a, on si I'on en trouve, ce n'est que 

 dans les mers qui sont au uord. On en prend beaucoup plus 

 pres du cap Tchukotskoi, oil ils y sont plus gros & plus nombreux 

 que par-tout ailleurs". Liitke found a dead one as far south 

 as Karaginskoi Ostrow (latitude 58). || Higher up the coast 

 from Caj)e Thaddeus northward and westward, they were met 

 with in great numbers bj' the early Eussian explorers. In the 

 Arctic Sea north of Behring's Straits they have been met with 

 abundantly as far north as shii)s have penetrated, their north- 

 ward range being only limited by the unbroken ice sheet. 



On the American coast they have been traced eastward onlj^ 

 as far as Point Barrow, where they were observed by Beechey 



* See vou Middendorff, Sibirisclie Eeise, Bd. iv, -p. 936, footnote. 



t "Auf der Insel Koliutscliin werdeii manchmal eiue grosse Menge Wall- 

 rosse erlegt, indein die Eingeborneu sic, weun sie aus dem Meere auf das Ufer 

 steigen, plotzlich iiberfallen, ilineu deu Riickweg ins Wasser abschneideu 

 und mit Peitschen und Stocten weiter liinauftreiben, wo sie sie dann mit 

 leicbter Miilie erlegeu. Das Wallross ist dem sitzeuden Tscbuktscben, wenii 

 aucli niclit so uumittelbar, docli fast eben so allgemeiu niitzlicli, als dem 

 Nomaden das Eennthier." NordhUste von SiMrien, vol. ii, 1839, pj). 224, 225. 



tSee Ton Baer, 1. c., p. 183. 



Hist. de Kamtscb., etc., as translated by "M. E. . . ." (Eidons), tom. 1, 

 1767, p. 283. 



II Voyage autour du Monde, tom. ii, p. 178. 



