450 OUE ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



oped ; and from what I could see of the meatus externum it was very 

 narrow and small ; still, the natives assured me that the Otariidcn 

 had no better organs of hearing than Rosmarus. 



The head of the male walrus, to which I have alluded, and from 

 which I afterward removed the skin, was eighteen inches long be- 

 tween the nostrils and the post-occipital region ; and, although 

 its enormous tusks seemed to be firmly planted in their osseous 

 sockets, judge of my astonishment when one of the younger natives 

 flippantly struck a tusk with a wooden club quite smartly, and then 

 easily jerked the tooth forth. I had frequently observed that it 

 was difficult to keep such teeth from rattling out of their alveoli in 

 any of the best skulls I had gathered of the fur seals and sea-lions, 

 especially difficult in the case of the latter. 



Its tusks, or canines, are set firmly under the nostril-apertures 

 in deep, massive, bony pockets, giving that strange, broad, square- 

 cut front of the muzzle so characteristic of its physiognomy. 



The upper lips of this walrus of Bering Sea are exceedingly 

 thick and gristly, and its bluff, square muzzle is studded, in regu- 

 lar rows and intervals, with a hundred or so, short, stubby, gray- 

 white bristles, varying in length from one-half to three inches. 

 There are a few very short and much softer bristles set, also, on 

 the fairly hidden chin of its lower jaw, which closes up under a 

 projecting snout and muzzle, and is nearly concealed by the enor- 

 mous tushes, when laterally viewed. 



The thickness of the skin of the walrus is a marked and most 

 anomalous feature. I remember well how surprised I was, when I 

 followed the incision of a broad-axe used in beheading the speci- 

 men shot for my benefit, to find that the skin over its shoulders 

 and around the throat and chest was three inches thick — a puff}^ 

 spongy epidermis, outwardly hateful to the sight, and inwardly rest- 

 ing upon a slightly acrid fat or blubber so peculiar to this animal. 

 Nowhere was that hide, upon the thinnest point of measurement, 

 less than half an inch thick. It feeds exclusively upon shell- 

 fish (Lamellibranchiata), or clams principally, and also upon the 

 bulbous roots and tender stalks of certain marine plants and 

 grasses which grow in great abundance over the bottoms of broad, 

 shallow lagoons and bays of the main Alaskan coast. I took from 

 the paunch of the walrus above mentioned more than a bushel of 

 crushed clams in their shells, all of which that animal had evidently 

 just swallowed, for digestion had scarcely commenced. Many of 



