128 CARNIVORES. 



the walrus is seldom found during summer on the west coast of Novaia Zemlia 

 to the south of Matotschkin Skar, but that on the east coast of the same island, 

 and in parts of the Kara Sea it is fairly common. It is but rarely seen in Iceland, 

 but is not unfrequent on the coasts of Western Siberia. 



In America the Atlantic walrus formerly ranged from Nova Scotia to about 

 latitude 80, and was at one time abundant in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the 

 eastern coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador. About 1534 walruses were very 

 abundant on the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence ; and many 

 expeditions were soon after fitted out in Europe for the capture of the animals on 

 these and adjacent islands. Till a few years ago, the heaps of walrus bones on the 

 shores of the Magdalen Islands attested the slaughter that had taken place. 

 According to Dr. A. S. Packard, the last walrus seen in the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 was killed in 1840 ; but a few have been observed subsequently on some of the 

 neighbouring coasts and islands. In Greenland it was stated that about the year 

 1877 the walrus was only sparsely distributed in most places, with the exception 

 of the tract lying between the 66th and 68th parallels, where it was sometimes 

 met with in considerable numbers, and was regularly hunted by the natives in 

 their canoes. Walruses also occur on the west coast of Baffin's Bay, and some of 

 the islands to the north ; but their range appears to be limited by the western 

 shore of Hudson's Bay; and as they are not again met with till we reach 

 Alaska, a large part of the coast of Arctic America is probably uninhabited by 

 them. 



Although the Pacific walrus has been known in Europe since the middle of 

 the seventeenth century, it was not much molested by hunters till about the year 

 1860, by which date whaling had become much less profitable than it had been. 

 The range of this variety was always much more restricted than that of its 

 Atlantic cousin, reaching from the limit of ice southwards on the American coast 

 as far as latitude 55, and on the Asiatic shores to latitude 60. In longitude its 

 range to the north of Behring Strait in the Arctic Sea was limited to the eastwards 

 by Point Barrow in Northern Alaska, and to the westward by Cape Chelagskoi, 

 in longitude 170, on the northern coast of Siberia. As on the latter coast the 

 range of the Atlantic walrus did not extend eastwards of the Lena, the two varieties 

 were widely separated from one another in this direction, as they also were in the 

 opposite direction. On the Alaskan side of Behring Sea and Behring Strait the 

 Pacific walrus was formerly found in enormous herds in Bristol Bay and Norton 

 and Kotzebue Sounds ; and in summer it also visited the Prybiloff Islands in large 

 numbers. These animals were likewise common on the Aleutian Islands ; but in 

 the more southern portions of their range they were always sparsely distributed. 

 Up to the year 1874 they were still found in innumerable herds where the waters 

 of the Arctic Sea join with those of Behring Strait, and also in Behring Sea; 

 but since that date their diminution has been rapid. It is stated that between 

 the years 1870 and 1880 close on 2,000,000 gallons of walrus-oil, and 400,000 Ibs. 

 weight of ivory were obtained from these regions ; thus representing the destruc- 

 tion of not far short of 100,000 animals. When the Russians first opened up the 

 Prybiloff Islands, walruses were found in numbers on both St. Paul's and St. 

 George's, but they soon retreated to Walrus Island, leaving the other two to their 



