164 ALASKA. 



natives not making any use oi' their flesb, fat, or bides ; and 

 wbeu tbey are sbot, it is usually- but a wanton undertaking by 

 tbe people ^Ybile visiting tbe island in June and July. For the 

 purpose of getting eggs, tbe natives come from the village on 

 Saint Paul's twice or thrice every j^ear, and only at this season. 



As tbe females never come down to the Prybilov Islands, I 

 have not had an opportunity of observing them, and have ia 

 this way not been able to see this animal as well as I could 

 wish. Tbe reason why this band of males, many of them old 

 ones, should be here by themselves all through the year is not 

 plain to me; the natives assure me that the females, or their 

 young, never have been seen around the shores of these islands. 

 Over in Bristol Bay great numbers of walrus congregate ou 

 the sandy bars and flats, where they are hunted to a consider- 

 able extent for their ivory.* 



Prom descriptions of undoubted authority, the walrus of the 

 iNOrth Atlantic is a much smaller animal than his relative in 

 the Pacific, and not nearly so timid. It is also covered with a 

 coat of short brownish-gray and black hair, while the male adult 

 of Bering Sea is almost entirely naked. The skins and skele- 

 tons of the two animals are now in the Smithsonian collection. 



* No ■walrus are now found south of tbe Aleutian Islands, but not more 

 than tbirty or tbirty-five years ago small numbers of these animals were 

 killed now and then ou islands between Kodiak and Oonemak Pass. Tbe 

 greatest number of them south of the arctic circle will now be found in 

 Bristol Bay and on the north shore of tbe peninsula. 



Tbe finest baidars that I have seen in this country were the skin-boats 

 of tbe Saint Lawrence natives, which were made out of dressed walrus- 

 hides sewed with sinews. The flesh is exceedingly rank in taste and smell 

 when fresh, and, in fact, quite as offensive to tbe civilized palate then as 

 when putrid. Tbe natives clean the small intestine and drj- it, which gives 

 them a piece of light, transparent gut-j)archment, over a hundred feet in 

 length and five to six inches broad, that serves admirably as material for 

 water-j)roof coats and trousers ; tbe flipper-skin makes the toughest soles 

 for their hair-seal boots, while tbe bide itself answers for all styles of cord- 

 afire. 



