— 10 — 



Prybillof Islands) they appear as a rare guest. The Ra- 

 satka near the Islands belongs to the zoological species 

 of Orca gladiator, rarely one can see the other kind — 

 the O. rectipinna. 



The walrus appears as an occasional visitor on the 

 Commander Islands in winter, as well as in summer, co- 

 ming from the northern shore of Kamtchatka. These 

 last years, in consequence of American hunting — schoo- 

 ners the Karaginsky, as well as the cape of Stolbowoi, 

 where the walrus is nearly entirely exterminated, their 

 the appearance of a walrus is very seldom. The Odobaenus 

 obesus in the Eastern Ocean has a more southern geogra- 

 phical boundary, goes as far as the 52 n. 1., but the 

 breeding herds go only up to the 56 n. 1., that is as 

 far as the south border of swimming pack-ice. 



Though the American naturalists deal out separatly 

 the walrus of the Eastern Ocean, as an independent 

 species, the Imperial Academie of Sciences in S.-Ptbrg. t 

 proved after examining the material, that this was not 

 an scientific foundation, there are even no dates to con- 

 sider it, as a subspecies. Along the shore of the Behring 

 sea and Ice-Ocean walruses get actively extirpated by 

 the natives, as well as by visiting trading — foreigners. 



Already in 1881 the American naturalist Edward W. 

 Nelson said: To-day it is safe to say, that the number 

 of these animals in existence, is not over 50 per cent 

 of the number living ten years ago; a heavy animal 

 decrease is still going on; this refers to the American, 

 as well as to the Asiatic shore of the Behring-sea and 

 the Arctic Ocean. Whale — hunters wintering on the 

 Barrow cape decreased the capture of walrus to such .111 

 extent, that the Government had to help the famishing 

 esquimaux, who through the extinction of walrus lost 

 their principal animal, with which they traded. The 

 statistics of the imported walrus bones by the American 

 trading fleet show a yearly decrease, a fact, that also 

 a fleets the Asiatic (Russian) shore, where the natives 



