34 THE SEALS AND WALRUS KS. 



and leave the water only for very short intervals. They usually briug forth their young ou the ice, 

 most of the species being confined to the colder latitudes. Only one of the various species of the 

 l'!n)iii><'tlin appears to be strictly tropical, and very few of them range into tropical waters. As a 

 group, the Pinnipeds are distinctively characteristic of the arctic, antarctic, and temperate portions 

 of the globe, several of the genera being strictly arctic or subarctic in their distribution. Tin- 

 Walruses are at present confined mainly within the Arctic Circle, and have no representatives south 

 of the colder portions of the Northern Hemisphere. The Ot artifice and Phocidcc, ou the other hand, 

 are abundantly represented on both sides of the Equator, as will be noticed more in detail later. 



18. THE WALRUSES. 



DISCUSSION OF THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC SPECIES. There are two species of Wall us, 

 that of the Atlantic, Odobamits rosmarus Malmgreu, and that of the Pacific, 0. obcsus (Illiger) Allen. 

 These animals are found only in the extreme north, and it was for many years commonly supposed 

 that there was but a single circumpolar species. Mr. Allen has confirmed the views of Pennant, 

 expressed in 17!>2 and emphasized since 1870 by Elliott and Gill. Their differences are tints 

 described : 



The Pacific Walrus is similar in size, and probably in general contour, to that of the Atlantic 

 (though possibly rather larger, and commonly described or depicted as more robust or thicker at the 

 shoulders), but quite different in its facial outlines. The tusks are longer and thinner, generally more 

 convergent, with much greater inward curvatures, the bristles upon the muzzle shorter and smaller. 

 The chief external difference appears to consist in the shape of the muzzle and the size and form 

 of the bristly nose-pad, which has a vertical breadth at least one-fourth greater than in the 

 Atlantic species. Very important differences between the two species are exhibited in the skulls, 

 which are fully described in Mr. Allen's book. 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE ATI- ANTIC WALRUS. The Atlantic Walrus is not now to be found 

 within the limits of the United States, nor has it been within historic time, or during the last three 

 hundred and fifty years, though, like the musk ox, the caribou, and the moose, it ranged during 

 the great Ice Period much beyond the southern limit of its boundary at the time fhe eastern coast 

 of North America was first visited by Europeans. During the last half of the sixteenth century 

 they are known to have frequented the southern coast of Nova Scotia as well as the shores and 

 islands to the northward, but this apj>ears at that time to have been their southern limit of 

 distribution, and to these islands New England vessels seem occasionally to have resorted to kill 

 them for their teeth and oil. 1 In 177."* they were abundant in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, at the 

 Magdalen Islands, Saint John's, and Anticosti, when; they congregated yearly to the number of 

 seven or eight thousand, and where they were soon exterminated by the "Americans." 2 



In isr.iiaiid is(i<) Packard and Gilpin recorded the killing of individuals near the Straits of 

 Belle Isle, and in I si is one was driven ashore in Saint George Hay, Newfoundland. The last seen 

 in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence was, icctirdiug to Professor Packard, in 1S11, when one was killed 

 at Saint Augustine, Labrador. Dr. 15ernard Gilpin speaks of the occurrence of their bones at 

 Miscon, on the IJay of (Mialeur, ill such numbers as to form artificial sea-beaches. These were, 

 doubtless, victims of "the Hoyal Company of Miscou," founded during the earlier part of the seven- 



.. .-.--,-_.-_ T _ 



A eaael that returned ;it tliiit time (Iti-ll) fioiu I hit Jslcg of Snhh-s inaile ;i better \ii\jip-, l>mi;;in<r loin hnii'ln-d 

 pair of SI:I-|M>IM- In-ill vvilli divers tun cil' oil. li.-ides niurli other "oeds <if like MHI \\liiili they left Ireland, worth 

 jL'l.VNI. Ill lil!\i:i>'s Ilisloiy of New |-:iif>hin<l In. in Hie iliseover.v to !'.,!-. p. :;7St. 



Tin- Si-a-Co-.v or Mor>e is plenty upon I In- eoawts oC \nvii-Si-otia .-mil lliel.'ulph of St. Laurence, partirularly ill tin: 

 ixlaml of St. John's; it is of the bigness of a middling eow (it is not the same with tin- Manatee of ihi- (.'nlph of 

 M llco . a very thick skin with hair like that of a HUH]. Dor<;i.\<"' North America, I?".."). 



; .Meaning, of course, people from tin- southern colonies. 



