THE WALRUS IN BRITISH WATERS 81 
by the movements of the fishes upon which it feeds, these 
in turn ultimately depending to a considerable extent on 
the directions of ocean currents or drifts in the northern 
waters. 
Since the greater part of a journey so determined, either 
on the ice or in the open sea, is traceable, on the above 
suppositions, to the influence of ocean currents, it would 
follow that the Walruses which have visited the coasts of 
the British Isles have generally travelled rather from a 
westerly source, toward Iceland and Greenland, than from 
more eastern breeding-grounds in the Spitsbergen region 
of the Arctic Ocean. 
Place of Appearance in British Waters——Of the Walruses 
which have been seen in British waters the records show 
that nine have visited the Shetland Isles, ten the Orkneys, 
three the Hebrides, while only one each have been found 
on the western shores of England and Ireland. In this 
distribution we have again some indication of the influences 
which bear the Walrus to our shores, for the thinning out 
of the records southwards shows that the centre of dispersal 
lies to the north. Further, since six out of eight definite 
Shetland localities lie on the east side of the group of islands 
—the Orkney records afford no definite indication — the 
direction of approach appears to be rather from the north 
than from the west. I would therefore suggest that the 
Walrus, which in a sense may be regarded as a member of 
the open ocean group of animals, is caught up in the drift 
which washes the ice-fields of eastern Greenland, and which, 
swinging past the east of Iceland, comes in contact with the 
North Atlantic drift in the neighbourhood of the Faroe 
Islands. It is well known that in certain phenomenal years 
an unusual flow of this cold oceanic current breaks through 
the warm current of the North Atlantic drift, and flows 
by way of the Shetlands into the North Sea, bearing with 
it members of the fauna of the northern ocean, The majority 
of the Walruses’ visits to Scotland may be looked upon as 
due to the unusual development of the Greeland-Iceland- 
Faroe oceanic circulation. 
II13 AND I14 6 
