Inasmuch as the Tertiary deposits at Gay Head, rising above the sea to a height of about 150 feet, are capped by a sheet of glacial drift and clays, it is probable that the skull in question had fallen from some of these drift deposits. According to Professor J. B. Woodworth (17th Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Surv., pt. I, p. 982), there are at Gay Head deposits of drift which represent some of the older glacial stages as well as the last one, the Wisconsin. It is possible, therefore, that this walrus lived there as far back as the middle of the glacial epoch or even earlier. For additional information on the geology of that island consult Woodworth’s paper, in which the literature is cited; also the important paper by N. S. Shaler (7th Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Surv., 1888, pp. 303–363.)
The hooded seal, _Cystophora cristata_, has probably been found fossil at Gay Head. The only reason for this supposition is found in a statement made by Charles Lyell (Proc. Geol. Soc. London, vol. IV, p. 32; Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XLVI, 1844, p. 319). He says that with other remains on Martha’s Vineyard he found a tooth having the crown fractured. Lyell submitted the tooth to Richard Owen, who pronounced it to be that of a seal which seemed to be nearly allied to the modern _Cystophora proboscidea_ (_C. cristata_). It seems quite probable that this species lived there at the time when the walrus haunted the region. It is of course possible that the remains reported belonged to an animal that lived in that region as far back as the Miocene. The tooth was not described or figured.
13. _Long Branch._—Portions of several walrus skulls have been found on the beach at Long Branch. Two of these were described and figured by Leidy in 1867 (Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., vol. XI, p. 83, plate IV, figs. 1, 2, plate V, fig. 1). One skull, lacking the lower jaw, some of the right hinder part of the cranium, and the exserted portion of one tusk, was discovered in 1853. The other specimen, discovered about 1856, furnished the front of the skull as far back as the middle of the palate. Both belonged to old individuals. Leidy concluded that the animals which had possessed these skulls belonged to the existing species _Odobenus rosmarus_. He surmised that they had been floated to the New Jersey coast on fields of ice or perhaps had lived there during the Glacial period. The skull which was found in 1853 is now in the collection of the Philadelphia Academy; the other is in the collection of the New Jersey Geological Survey. Recently, Mr. Samuel N. Rhoads has studied these skulls. He had also for examination the skull from Sable Island, which has been mentioned. He concluded that these skulls belonged to a species distinct from _O. rosmarus_ and which might bear DeKay’s name, _O. virginianus_.