GEOGEAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 177 



'^vriting in 1874, that "not more than thirty or thirty-five years 

 ago small nnmbers of these animals were killed now and then 

 on islands between Kodiak and Oonemak Pass" (lat. 55 to 57^). 

 He adds none "are now fonnd sonth of the Alentian Islands."* 



Respecting' their present distribution, Captain Scammon, writ- 

 ing in 1874, from personal observation, says: "Great numbers 

 of Walruses are found where the waters of the Arctic Sea unite 

 with those of Behring Straits, and also in Behring Sea, and 

 that innumerable herds still resort in the summer months to dif- 

 ferent points on the southern or central coasts of Alaska, par- 

 ticularly at Amak Island and Point MoUer, on the northern 

 shore of the Alaskan peninsula. Within the last ten years many 

 of these animals have been destroyed by the whalers^ both in 

 the Arctic and Behring Seas."t 



According to Mr. Elliott, the Walruses are now to be seen 

 in the Prybilov Islands only on Walrus Island,| they being 

 so shy and timid that they deserted the other islands as they 

 became poftulated bj' man. In early days, or when the Rus- 

 sians first took possession, a great many Walruses were found 

 at Northeast Point, and along the south shore of Saint Paul's 

 Island, but with the landing of the traders and seal-hunters 

 the Walruses abruptly took their departure, and Walrus Island 

 alone is now frequented by them, being isolated and seldom 

 \isited during the year by the natives. He adds that they 

 are now most numerous, outside of the Arctic circle, in Bristol 

 Bay, where "great numbers congregate on the sandj'^ bars and 

 flats, and where they are hunted to a considerable extent for 

 their ivory." 



They are now far less numerous than formerly, having greatly 

 decreased in numbers within the last fifty years. So numerous 

 were they in Behring's Straits about 1821, that a Russian writer 



elms living out of the Arctic Ocean, and should have believed that he [ Bo- 

 nelli] had mistaken the Sea Bear (Otaria leonina) for the Sea Horse," if he 

 had not so particularly described the tusks. Cat. Seals and Whales, i>. 37. 

 The reference by Bonelli to the great white tusks of the " Sea Horses" relates, 

 in all jirobability, to the large canines of the Sea Elephant, which were for- 

 merly employed for a variety of uses. 



* Condition of Affairs in Alaska, p. 1G4, footnote. 



t Marine Mammalia, p. 180. 



X A low rocky island, about half a mile long by one-eighth of a mile in 

 breadth, situated a few miles to the southeastward of the eastern end of 

 Saint Paul's Island. 



Condition of Affairs in Alaska, pp. 161, 164. 

 Misc. Pub. No. 12 12 



