414 DR. J. MURIE ON THE ANATOMY OF THE WALRUS. 
(pp. 124-150) critically reviews the delineations of these older authors, referring to that 
of Pallas and the well-known one in Captain Cook’s third voyage (tab. vi.), and he 
afterwards himself graphically describes his own observations on the living specimen at 
St. Petersburg. 
A perusal of these latter convinces me that he scrutinized with accuracy, and recorded 
his inspection in no slip-shod manner; in truth, he saw with the eye of an anatomist, 
and was not negligent in zoological deduction. My own remarks upon the whole 
corroborate his; but I have had one advantage not enjoyed by him—namely, living 
Earless Seals (Phoca) to compare with side by side, and antecedent study of an Eared 
Seal (Otaria), to ground a basis of comparison. 
The intervertebral cartilages in our young animal were uncommonly large; and as the 
bony epiphyses also were incompletely united, these, as well as the lax condition of the 
surrounding soft structures, gave to the body great, and, indeed, unusual, flexibility. 
On arrival at the Menagerie, apparently from want of use, the creature for some 
time having been confined to a box, it had difficulty in supporting its heavy frame 
in walking ; but as it grew stronger on the legs it marched about the yard in true plan- 
tigrade fashion. ‘The fore limbs are thrust forwards in succession ; and the hind limbs, 
with a somewhat simultaneous movement from the pelvis, are likewise called into 
action at separate intervals of time. Von Baer has faithfully noted that the Walrus, 
though approaching, is opposed to the digitigrades, as the manus, from the wrist, and 
the pes, well nigh from the ankle, form horizontal supporting buttresses. Most 
commonly the fore limbs are passed forwards from the carpus as a pivot, the outer 
or radial border forming the advanced limb-margin, whilst the toes are thrown out- 
wards and backwards, the pollex in front, or almost at right angles to the chest. 
The hind feet are swung or move on a radius from the heel; for the femoral and 
tibial regions, though to some extent outwardly movable, are checked, or do not 
pass beyond a certain poiut. Thus the foot lags outwards at the end of the step, 
and on the heel or inner ankle being hitched forwards the toes flap bellywards, but 
not quite under it, and the toes never overlap the fore foot, as sometimes occurs in 
Otaria. During these successive movements the shoulders stand high, and the rump 
is bent downwards, or has a very shelving arch, the tail and the broad membrane fixed 
to the heel almost touching the ground, and draggling from side to side as each leg is 
called into action. Occasionally, when a quicker kind of hobbling pace or canter is 
adopted, the pelvis and hind feet are more or less jerked forward together; but even 
then the feet do not touch the ground quite simultaneously. 
My friend Mr. Brown (/.c.p.432) asserts that they walk “hind flippers heel first,” and 
“fore flippers toes first.” The Society’s animal in verity did not so progress; but I 
fancy that by the above expression it is meant that the front toes and the heel respec- 
tively are the first points of motion or pivots. If otherwise, the composition of the bony 
parts and attachments of the superincumbent tissues would admit of such a posture only 
