418 DR. J. MURIE ON THE ANATOMY OF THE WALRUS. 
weigh at least 3000 lbs., and such a Walrus will produce, if very fat, 650 lbs. of blubber, 
but seldom more than 500 lbs., which latter was, I think, about the maximum quantity 
yielded by the most obese of our victims.” Very different was the condition exhibited 
by the Society’s specimen, in which, as I have remarked (P. Z. S. 1868, p. 68), “not 
a particle of subcutaneous fat was present; and the mesentery and other abdominal 
parts, usually containing fatty substances, were equally destitute of such.” Indeed I 
may say I never met with a leaner fleshy brute; but the pailful of Ascaris bicolor taken 
out of the stomach went far to account for deprivation of fat. Whatever be the bear- 
ings of the case concerning tegumentary folds, Von Baer (p. 133) hints that his subject 
was loose-hided ; and Brown (p. 428) mentions that the skin of old animals is generally 
wrinkled and gnarled: indeed, from what most travellers say, the great laxity of the 
Walrus’s skin characterizes both old and young. 
5. The Head.—No really good and faithful portrait of the head, displaying the 
minutie of skin and the manner in which the bristles are set in the Walrus, is to my 
knowledge published’. Hence I have reason to think that the large profile view 
(Pl. LI. fig. 1) photographed by me from the recently dead animal, and most carefully 
delineated on stone by Mr. Smit, will be found to possess unusual accuracy. This 
illustration, as well as figs. 2, 3, 4, & 5, Pl. LIL, of which three are also from photo- 
graphs, and lithographed by Mr. Berjeau, renders it less necessary that I should dwell 
at length on the peculiarities of the head of the Walrus in youth; nevertheless some 
remarks may not be inappropriate, especially as the aspect of a thing itself conveys 
certain impressions which even in a photograph are wanting. 
As observed in nature, then, the head is longer than the neck, and the cranial vault 
has not the same flattened appearance as that of Otaria jubata. The snout or muzzle 
is abruptly truncate. 
The eye has pretty nearly a median position on the side of the head; its orbital ring 
seems prominent and tumid, giving, along with the relatively small bloodshot eye, quite 
a different expression to the large staring-eyed Sea-lion. 
I had thought the intense redness of the conjunctival membrane was due to patho- 
logical lesion, but find that Von Baer noticed similar “sugillation” in his specimen; 
and, besides, several voyagers (for instance, Martens in 1675, and Lamont in 1861) call 
special attention to the red eye of the Walrus. This unusual condition, therefore, must 
be a natural one, the physiological reason of which I am not prepared to give. 
There are no apparent eyelashes. In the state of contraction the palpebral fissure 
appears as a narrow slit 1 inch long. The anterior canthus is distant 32 inches from 
the nasal opening. 
Though destitute of ears, however, there is a protuberance, or a semilunar skin-fold 
? Brown, P. Z.8. 1868, p. 482, adverts to the drawings of Herr von Yhlen, ‘Svenska Expeditionem til 
Spetsbergen ir 1861,’ pp. 169, 308, as being very good. I have not, however, been so fortunate as to get a 
sight of these, although I have searched seyeral of the London libraries for the volume in question, 
