THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 93 



"Witb this imposing list of authorities in my mind, I thought I had reason to believe that there was nothing about 

 this pinniped which I should find new, or even interesting to science. 



The walrus of Bering sea. — When, therefore, looking for the first time upon the walrus of Bering sea, 

 judge of my astoni,shment as I beheld the animal before me. It was a new species; it was a new creature, or all 

 that had been written by five hundred authors in regard to the appearance and behavior of its Atlantic cousin was 

 in error. The natives who accompanied me were hurriedly summoned to my side, called from their eager task of 

 picking up birds' eggs. "Are these walrus sickr' said I. They looked at me in astonishment; "No, they are not." 

 "Do they always look like that?" " Serovnah,"* was the answer. 



Such was my introduction to iJosmarwA- arcticus (Pallas), and the occasion of my describing it in 1873, for the 

 first time, as the walrus of Bering sea — a distinct and separate animal, specifically, from its congener of the 

 North Atlaniic. Odohaims rosmarus ( Allen). t 



Walrus on the Tribylov islands.— In early days, when the Pribylov islands were first occupied by the 

 Eus.sians, report has it that large unmbers of these creatures frequeuted the entire coast line of St. Paul island, and 

 many were found around St. George; but, being relatively more timid than the sea-lion in respect to the presence 

 of man, they rapidly disappeared as he took possession of the land; the disappearance, however, was not total — 

 a few of them every year were and can now be observed upon that little rocky islet, lying six miles to the 

 southeast of the Northeast point of St. Paul island, owing to its comparative isolation ; since the natives only go 

 there once a year, and then only for a few days during the egging season.f 



Selection of landings by walrus herds.— The walrus rests upon the low rocky tables characteristic 

 of this place, without being disturbed ; hence the locality afforded me a particularly pleasant and advantageous 

 opportunity of minutely observing these animals. My observations, perhaps, would not have passed over a few 

 moments of general notice, had I found the picture presented by them such as I had drawn in my mind from the 

 descriptions of the army of writers cited above; the contrary, however, stamping itself so suddenly and decidedly 

 upon my eye, set me to work with pen and brush in noting and portraying the extraordinary brutes, as they lay 

 grunting and bellowing, unconscious of my presence, and not ten feet from the ledge upon which I sat.§ 



Life-studies of the herd.— Sitting as I did to the leeward of them, a strong wind blowing at the time from 

 seaward, which, ever and anon, fairly covered many of them with the foaming surf-spray, they took no notice of me 

 during the three or more hours of my study. I was first surprised at observing the raw, naked appearance of the 



* Jnst the sanie. 



» Allen, iu reviewiDg the history of this species, cites the hesitating opinions of Pennant, in 1792 ; of Shaw, in 1800 ; of V. Cuvier, in 1825 ; 

 of Lcidy. in 1800, all of "whom suggest the specific distinctness of the Bering sea walrns, hut give their itleas clouded hy expressed hints or 

 mental reservations. He shows, however, that llliger, in 1811, formally recognized three varieties, but that this author gives nowhere his 

 reasons for so doing; he named them Triclucus rosmarus lor the North Atlantic, and T. obcsiis and T. divergeris for the Bering sea region and 

 waters north of the straits thereof. Then Allen says, page 21, " I have met with nothing further touching this subject prior to Mr. 

 H. W. Elliott's report on the seal-islands of Alaska, publish(id iu 1873, and he quotes it freely. Professor Allen has, however, done the 

 osteological part of the work so well in his History nf North American Fiiwipcda, that now I deem it finished. 



While Allen agrees with me finally in my early cietermination of the Bering sea walrus as a distinct species from that of the Atlantic, 

 he seems to base all of his belief uponthe osteological diftercntiation between them. 1 have had my faith in that one line of evidence as 

 to genera and species, so sadly shaken by the amazing asymmetry and differences in the skulls and skeletons of the fur-seal which are 

 bleaching out here side by side, thousands and tens of thousands of them, that I feel better satisfied with the characteristic external 

 fi-atures of the pinnijieds, which are really more fixed and exact among the hundreds of thousands on the Pribylov islands. Perhaps ten 

 thousand skulls of Odobanus obexiis would show a great number of examples which could not, alone by themselves, be separated from types 

 of 0. rosmarus. From my inspection of the wide range of variation presented in a large series of Callorhinus aud Eumetopias skulls, I do 

 not have any hesitation in saying so. 



t As to the number of walrus on the Pribylov islands in prehistoric time, and when the Enssians tirst took possession of the same, 

 1786-1787, I have not been able to find any record of the least authentic value. Beyond the general legend of the natives that in olden 

 times the "morsjee" were wont to haul in considerable number at Novashtoshnah and over the entire extent of the north and south shores 

 of St. Paul, while herds were also common under the precipitous sea-walls of St. George. Gavrila Sarietschev, one of the several 

 imperial agents commissioned at intervals to examine into the affairs of the old Russian American Fur Company, in the details of his report 

 made in December, 1805, incidentally states, speaking of the walrus, that while they had abandoned the Pribylov islands then, yet, 

 formerly they were there in such numbers that 28,000 pounds of their teeth (tusks) were obtained in a single year ; as the average weight 

 of well assorted walrus ivory is about 8 pounds to the head, of each animal, this memorandum of the agent shows that between 3,500 and 

 4,000 walrus were taken then. From the quantity of old bones of Eosmarii which are constantly covered and uncovered by the caprice of 

 the wind at Nahsayveruia and Novastoshnah, I should judge the Russian officer was correct. 



^ These favored basaltic tables are also commented upon in similar connection by an old writer in 1775, Shuldham, who calls them 

 "echouries"; he is describing the Atlantic walnis as it appears at the Magdalen islands: " The echouries are formed principally by 

 nature, beiug a gradual slope of soft rock, with which the Jlagdalen islands abound, about 80 to 100 yards wide at the water side, and 

 spreading so as to contain, near the summit, a very considerable number." The tables at Walrus island and those at Southwest point, 

 are very mnch less in area than those described by Shuldham, and are a small series of low, saw-tooth jetties of the harder basalt washed 

 in relief, from a tufa matrix ; there is no room to the landward of them for many walruses to lie upon. The Odobanus does not like to haul 

 up on loose or shingly shores, because it has the greatest difficulty in getting a solid hold for its fore-flippers with which to pry up and ahead 

 its huge, clumsy body. When it hauls on a sand beach, it never attempts to crawl out to the dry region.back of the surf, but lies just 

 awash, at high water. In this fashion they used to rest all along the sand reaches of St. Paul prior to the Russian advent iu 178ij-1737; 

 aud when Shuldham was inditing his letters on the habits of liosmarus, Odobainus was theu lying out in full force aud great physical 

 pe.nLe on the Pribylov islands. 



