THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA; ' 101 



that time, he interwove the relations of Othere and the Dane Wulfstan. The former was a great man from ^Norway ; 

 he undertook a voyage of discovery beyond the north cape of his native land, and to the than unknown eastward 

 as far as our modern Finland, which he indicated as the "country of the Beormas". He shaped his course to this 

 region, "on account of the horse whales, inasmuch as they have very good bone in their teeth"; also, "this sort of 

 whale is much less than the other kinds, it being not larger commonly than seven ells"; and states further that he, 

 Othere, "had killed fifty-six in two days". 



DESCHNEV THE FIRST TO SEE THE WALRUS OF BEKENG SEA. The earliest personal record made of the walrus 

 of Bering sea, was the discovery of these animals by Simeon Deschnev, that Cossack who, first of all civilized men, 

 sailed through Bering straits, October, 1648 ; and who made use of their ivory, en voyage, in repairing his rude 

 shallop. He also, in 1651, discovered extensive sand shoals north of the Anadyr mouth, upon which large herds of 

 walrus were resting. But in this connection it is proper to say, that the walrus of Bering sea is the same animal 

 of which Isaiah Ignatiev learned in 1646, when he led a party of Russian fur-hunters east of the month of the 

 Kolyma as far as Tchaun bay. He did not see it, however, and traded with the Tschukchies for the teeth in 

 question. His report of a nation rich in walrus ivory far to the eastward along the shores of the Polar ocean, is 

 what stimulated the remarkable voyage of Deschnev, above referred to, as well as many others who were not 

 so successful,* viz: Staduchin, Alexiev, Ankudiuov, Buldakov, all in 1647-1649. 



BOREAL RANGE OF THE WALRUS OF BERING SEA. The range of the Bering sea walrus now appears to be 

 restricted in the Arctic ocean to an extreme westward at Cape Chelagskoi, on the Siberian coast, and an extreme 

 eastward between Point Barrow and the region of Point Beechey, on the Alaskan shore. It is, however, substantially 

 confined between Koliutchin bay, Siberia, and Point Barrow, Alaska. As far as its distribution in polar waters is 

 concerned, and how far to the north it travels from these coasts of the two continents, I am unable to present any well 

 authenticated data illustrative of the subject ; the shores of Wrangell Land were found this year (1881) in possession 

 of walrus herds. 



The Japanese seem to have known of the walrus of Bering sea, but evidently have not observed it at least, I 

 think so, from the testimony of their spirited drawings of this animal. They represent it with the body, the neck, 

 and the limbs of a horse, running on camel-like feet, with an equine head, from the upper jaw of which two 

 enormous tusks depend; it is made to gallop rather as a land- than a sea-horse. The hair-seals are very much 

 better delineated by both Chinese and Japanese artists; and, further, no suggestion, by such means, has been 

 made of the fur-seal by them. 



The chief demand for walrus ivory first came, and still comes, from those patient, skillful Mongolian hand- 

 carvers, who work the teeth up into a variety of exceedingly attractive articles, both useful and fanciful. "Wrangell 

 -says that the Tschukchies " make long, narrow drinking vessels from the teeth", which require much time to hollow 

 out; they are frequently sold to the Reindeer Tschukchies, who convey them to the Russians. 



The walrus ivory carving of the Alaskan Mahlemoots, at Oogashik and Nushagak, in particular, is remarkably 

 well executed ; clever and even beautiful imitations of our watch chains, guards, table, and pocket cutlery, rings, 

 bracelets, and necklace jewelry are made by them. They have earned the just reputation of being " the sculptors of 

 the north". 



PARRY'S HISTORY OF THE ATLANTIC WALRUS. In closing here this brief biography of the walrus of Bering 

 sea, I desire to say that the graphic and detailed account given by Sir Edward Parry, in the narrative of his third 

 voyage to the north pole, of the manner in which the Eskimo hunt and use the walrus of Prince Regent inlet 

 (Odvbccnus rosmarm), fitly expresses my own observations made at St. Lawrence island, among the Tschukchie 

 Eskimo there; hence, I shall not embody them in type; my illustrations will supply the vacancy which his accurate 

 and lengthy description alone allows.! I call attention to this economic history of the Atlantic walrus by Parry, 

 for, in my opinion, it is written with great fidelity. 



*Allcn erroneously gives the credit (on p. 172, Hist, of \. A. Pinnipeds) of first discovery and report of the walrus ivory of Bering 

 sea to "the Cossak adventurer Staduchin, who found (about 1645 to 1648) its tusks on the Tschnkchie coast, near the mouth of the 

 Kolyma river. A century later, Deschnev also found Targe quantities of walrus teeth on the sand-bars at the mouth of the Anadyr". 

 Michael Staduchiu did not sail from the Kolyma month until 1649. He ventured at that time as far east probably as Cape Chelagskoi ; 

 he was obliged to return then, after getting a load of walrus teeth from the Tschukchies, hut from whom he could get no meat or 

 provision of any kind ; he saw 110 more than his predecessor, Ignatiev, did, three years prior ; in other words, he did not then see the 

 walrus itself. 



tAs the natives of the Pribylov islands do not hunt the walrus, I have, in my studies of this animal, introduced the figures, method, 

 and costumes of the St. Lawrence Eskimo, which faithfully typify the entire Alaskan people, who live largely upon the flesh of this animal. 

 I do so, not only on account of its being wholly germane to the subject of my discussion in this monograph, but more so, as it is the first 

 pictorial presentation of the ideas involved ever given. 



