The New International Encyclopædia/Walrus

WALRUS (Swed. hvalross, Dan. hvalros, walrus, whale-horse, from Swed., Dan. hval, Whale + Swed. hross, Dan. hros, horse). One of the largest animals of the seal tribe (Pinnipedia), the two species of which constitute the family Trichechidæ (formerly Rosmaridæ) and classified on anatomical grounds between the eared seals (otaries) and earless or 'common' seals, though having little external resemblance to either. The form is thick and clumsy (see Colored Plate of Seals), and a full-grown male will measure 12 feet in length and may exceed 2200 pounds in weight: but females are somewhat smaller. Young ones are rather thickly clothed with a faded brown fur, but as age advances this falls out, and old individuals are almost naked. The blunt muzzle is set with a thick mustache of bristles, which with the lips is very mobile. The ear is marked only by a fold of skin. The primary characteristic of the family is the possession of a pair of enormous tusks (the canine teeth), which project downward from the upper jaw, and are solid ivory, hard and more yellowish than those of elephants. Those of the female are longer (reaching sometimes 30 inches) than the male's, but his are stronger and thicker. For the support of these huge teeth—which are used as pick-axes in digging up mollusks, for aid in clinihing upon ice or rocks, and as weapons—the anterior part of the skull is greatly enlarged and strengthened, ilost of the'other teeth fall out, so that an old walrus has in the upper jaw, besides the tusks, only two incisors and three pairs of molars, and in the lower jaw no incisors, two canines, and four pairs of molars. These animals are confined to northern shores, and two species are known—the Atlantic (Odobœnus or Trichecus

PACIFIC WALRUS.

PACIFIC WALRUS.

rosmarus), and the Pacific walrus (Odobœnus obsesus). The latter is rather larger and more obese than its congener, and the tusks are usually longer and thinner. The Atlantic walrus, the 'rosmarus' or 'morse' of old writers, is found from the archipelago north of America eastward to about the mouth of the Yenisei, and in Hudson Bay. Labrador, and Greenland, but it no longer, as formerly, comes south to Nova Scotia or Southern Norway, and is scarce around Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla. The Pacific walrus is no longer seen south of the Aleutian Islands, and does not pass eastward of Point Barrow, nor much west of Bering Strait.

Walruses pass most of their time in the ocean near shore, resting in crowded bands on the floating ice, and do not often go ashore except in early sununer, when the females produce their one or two young. The period of gestation is said to be about nine months. Their fond consists mainly of clams, dug with the tusks: seaweed is also eaten. The flesh is an important factor in the sustenance of the natives of Arctic consts, but is not well liked by civilized men. The diminution of the Pacific walrus has been a very serious deprivation to the natives of Alaska and the neighboring part of Siberia, threatening famine there. Their greatest natural enemy is the polar bear. The oil yielded is inferior in both quantity and quality to that of seals; but the thick hide is used largely in Russia and Scandinavia as sole-leather and for harness and ship-rigging, while the ivory is valuable. This commercial importance has led to a steady hunting of the animal everywhere, and the race is rapidly diminishing in all accessible parts of its habitat. Occasionally a young one is captured alive, and shows docility and some intelligence, but none have long survived captivity.

Consult Allen, North American Pinnipeds (Washington, 1880). which contains an exhaustive treatment and bibliography of the subject.