MORSE AND MAHLEMOOT. 449 



I carefully removed with the aid of these natives, with the head, 

 weighed five hundred and seventy pounds. Deducting the head 

 and excluding the flippers, I think it is safe to say that the skin it- 

 self would not weigh less than three hundred and fifty pounds, and 

 the animal could not weigh much less than a ton, from two thou- 

 sand to two thousand two hundred pounds. 



The head had a decidedly flattened appearance, for the nostrils, 

 eyes, and ear-spots seem to be placed nearly on top of the cranium. 

 The nasal apertures are literally so, opening directly over the muz- 

 zle. They are oval, and closed parallel with the longitudinal axis of 

 the skull, and when dilated are about an inch in their greatest di- 

 ameter. 



The eyes are small, but prominent ; placed nearly on top of the 

 head, and, protruding from their sockets, they bulge like those of a 

 lobster. The iris and pupil of this eye is less than one-fourth of its 

 exposed surface ; the sclerotic coat swells out from under the lids 

 when they are opened, and is of a dirty, mottled coffee-yellow and 

 brown, with an occasional admixture of white ; the iris itself is 

 light-brown, with dark-brown rays and spots. I noticed that when- 

 ever the animal roused itself, instead of turning its head, it only 

 rolled its eyes, seldom moving the cranium more than to elevate it 

 The eyes seem to move, rotating in every direction when the creat- 

 ure is startled, giving the face of this monster a very extraordi- 

 nary attraction, especially when studied by an artist. The expression 

 is just indescribable. The range of sight enjoyed by the walrus 

 out of water, I can testify, is not well developed, for, after throw- 

 ing small chips of rock down upon the walruses near me, several 

 of them not being ten feet distant, and causing them only to stu- 

 pidly stare and give vent to low grunts of astonishment, I then rose 

 gently and silently to my feet, standing boldly up before them ; 

 but then, even, I was not noticed, though their eyes rolled all over 

 from above to under me. Had I, however, made a little noise, or 

 had I been standing as far as one thousand yards away from them 

 to the windward, they would have taken the alarm instantly, and 

 tumbled off into the sea like so many hustled wool-sacks, for their 

 sense of smell is of the keen, keenest. 



The ears of the walrus, or rather the auricles to the ears, are 

 on the same lateral line at the top of the head with the nostrils 

 and eyes, the latter being just midway between. The pavilion, or 



auricle, is a mere fleshy wrinkle or fold, not at all raised or devel- 

 29 



