THE WALRUS FAMILY 
53 
thereof, and the value of the catch was over a 
quarter of a million dollars. 
This species passes through several strongly 
marked changes of pelage and color. The 
baby is covered from nose to flipper-tips with a 
thick coat of long, woolly hair of snowy white- 
ness. This, when shed at six months after birth, 
is replaced by a coat of bluish gray hair, with 
light trimmings. On reaching adult age, in its 
fifth year, this animal is very strikingly marked 
by black or dark-brown patches grouped together 
on the sides and back, on a white or yellowish 
ground-color apparently in the shape of a harp. 
This Seal is also called the Saddle-Back, and 
Greenland Seal. 
The Hooded Seal 1 of the North Atlantic is 
a large species, often attaining 8 feet in length. 
The old males are distinguished by the possession 
of a flexible bag of skin on top of the nose, which 
is capable of being inflated with air until it forms 
a lofty and remarkable excrescence on the creat- 
ure’s face. This sac is sometimes 10 inches long 
and 6 inches high. The color of this Seal is dark 
bluish-gray, marked with irregular light spots. 
It once came as far south as New Jersey. 
The Ribbon Seal, or Harlequin Seal , 2 in its 
color pattern is the most remarkable of all living 
Pinnipeds, and there are many persons who con- 
sider it the most beautiful member of its Order. 
On a smooth ground-color, either of blackish- 
brown or yellowish-gray, Nature has sportively 
arranged several yards of broad, yellowish-white 
ribbon. One strip goes around the neck, and ties 
under the throat. From a point low down on the 
breast, another starts upward, curves gracefully 
over the shoulder, drops down in front of the pel- 
vis, where it comes together, then turns and 
crosses over the body. In many specimens the 
uniformity of the width of the ribbon is remark- 
ably well maintained. 
This Seal is from 4 to 6 feet in length. Its 
home is on the eastern shore of Bering Sea, and 
in the fresh waters of Lake Iliamna, in the upper 
end of the Alaskan Peninsula. 
THE WALRUS FAMILY. 
Odobenidae. 
Of all living monsters that ever move upon 
land, the Pacific Walrus 3 is one of the most 
1 Cys-toph'o-ra cris-ta'ta. 
2 His-tri-o-pho' ca fas-ci-a'ta. 3 O-do-ben' us o-be'sus. 
wonderful. A full-grown male is a living moun- 
tain of heaving flesh, wrinkled, furrowed and 
seamed, ugly as a satyr, and as strange in habits 
as in appearance. 
Its form is that of a sea-lion with a neck enor- 
mously thickened. Its upper jaw is provided 
with two long, strong tusks of ivory, and its skin 
is almost destitute of hair. A full-grown male 
measures from 10 to 12 feet in length from nose 
to tail, the top of its head is about 5 feet from 
HEAD OF HOODED SEAL. 
the ground, the girth of its neck is from 12 to 14 
feet, and it weighs from 1,800 to 2,000 pounds. 
Its skin varies from half an inch to two inches 
in thickness; it is of a dirty yellow color, and lies 
on a mass of fat which often is six inches thick. 
The largest pair of tusks known to the author 
measure 24£ inches in exposed length, and are 
in the British Museum. 
The Pacific Walrus eats more or less of aquatic- 
plant food, but its principal food is shell-fish and 
crustaceans. These it digs up from the muddy 
bottoms of the broad, shallow bays along the 
coast, crushes between its powerful jaws, and 
swallows in great quantities, shells and all! Crabs 
and shrimps form a pleasing variety, and for 
salad it devours the bulbous roots and tender 
stalks of marine plants which in summer grow 
in its home waters. 
In former times, the Pacific Walrus existed 
in great herds on the coast of Alaska, from the 
north shore of the Alaskan Peninsula northward 
through Bering Strait, and thence eastward as 
far as Point Barrow. There the herds encoun- 
tered the edge of the great permanent ice-pack, 
and could go no farther. In winter the Walrus 
