THE WALRUS. 
Trichecus rosmarus. 
Plate XVIII. 
In tlie year 1853, Captain Henry, of Peterhead, commanded a vessel which was engaged in the Seal- 
Fisheries on the coasts of Spitzhergen and in the neigbouring Arctic seas. Towards the latter part of the 
voyage, the crew succeeded in capturing a young Walrus, and contrived to keep it alive for nearly nine weeks 
on very uncongenial food. The animal gradually declined in condition as might have been expected, and 
when at last it reached London, was evidently beyond recovery. Captain Henry was induced, however, to 
entrust it to the custody of the Zoological Society, and it lived at the Gardens until the third day after 
its arrival. 
The specimen thus obtained, although in so reduced a state that it could not be trusted in water, 
aiforded us good opportunities for observing the peculiar method of progression of the Walrus on land. Its 
actions under these circumstances differ essentially from those of the Seals ( Phocidce ), a group w ith which the 
attitude usually given to the Walrus in the stuffed specimens set up in our Museums, has popularly caused it 
to be associated. Instead of moving by a series of bounds or undulations, dragging its fins after it, the 
Walrus walks on all its extremities, the posterior members being inclined forwards, and the anterior 
backwards, as Mr. Wolf has faithfully recorded in his study. 
Living specimens of this animal have been but seldom seen in captivity, and it is believed that there is 
only one instance on record of a Walrus having ever been brought to England previously to this. 
In the Society’s “Proceedings” for 1853 will be found a paper by Dr. J. E. Gray, containing descriptions 
and figures illustrative of the curious attitudes and shapes assigned to the Walrus or Morse by the older 
authors, many of whom entertained the most exaggerated ideas as to its form and natural position.* 
The home of the Walrus is the region of icy seas surrounding the Arctic Pole. It occurs both in the 
North-Pacific or Sea of Kamtschatka, on the coasts of Asia and America, and in the Northern Atlantic, on 
the shores of Siberia, Greenland, and Hudson’s Bay, whence it is occasionally driven southwards to Iceland, 
and even to the shores of Great Britain. The hard and pure white ivory obtained from its tusks, and the 
oil supplied by its body, have caused it to be much sought after, and a great diminution in its numbers has 
taken place in localities readily accessible, so that it is now said to be a scarce animal in many parts of the 
Northern Atlantic, where it was formerly extremely abundant. Though allied to the carnivorous Seals, the 
Walrus is strictly a vegetarian; its food, according to the most trustworthy authorities, consisting entirely of 
sea-weeds, and in particular of the Fucus digitatus, which is very abundant in the Arctic Seas. 
See “On the Attitudes and Figures of the Morse.” By Dr. J. E. Gray. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1853, p. 112. 
