The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Keys, A Little Surprise; anid Adamt -Colville, Great Sleigh Ride. 7he programa concludedwith al students taking part in the Finale. lished that a6unaant sneltti oi four kinds, as well as barnacles, were commng from a banded sand and dlay zone nearly 1 m below a surface layer of sand deposited as the sea withdrew from its northemn shore in this area. The walrus skull- had almost certainly come fromt the base of the sheli layer, but unfortunately rio more bones were located during the excavation. Below the sheil layer was a thick deposit of sticky, grey Champlain Sea dlay -- deep water deposits containing dropstones (During the course of their "life," glaciers pick up rocky debrîs, and then frag- ments of ice "calve" or break off into seawater and meit, angular Stones from the debris occasion- ally dropping into the bottom, mud.) Becky Mwartn d Jdi Griffun their par for the evening. ready to lut the spotight and play Walrus Near, Montreal! Our field work suggested that walruses (they are gregarious) lived in the area after the sea had reached its maximum extent, and had probably fed on several of the species of shellfish represented in the banded zone.hI March, Michel eeceived adradiocarbon date mndi- cating that the Ste-Julienne wal- rus had died a littie more than 10,000 years ago. Our suspicions were confirmed. Although many samples of clay were taken at 10 cm interval s below the sheil layer, unfortunately none yielded microorganic remaîns of ostracodes and foraminifera that have been found useful in1 pro- viding estimates of ancient sea temperature and saltiness. In looking more closely at the partial skull (front part of the cra- mium with tusks and other teeth), I noted that the tusks are rather short, straight and spreading little it, the tips - more like Atlantic than Pacific walruses. Among specimens to which I compared the Ste-Julienne fossil, the closest match was a recent male Atlantic walrus fromn the Northwest Territories estimnated to have died at about 15 years of age. The cir- cumnference of the tusks (156- 159 mmn) of the fossil suggested an age-at-death of approximately 14 years (femnale measurements are much smaller). By sectioning a premnolar tooth and examining microscopically the cementum layer around the root, 1 found 14 yearly rings. This supported the earlier estimnate of age-at-death. Probably wairuses reached far- thest south near the maximum extent of lato Pleistocene glacia- tions. Evidently Pacfic walruses, or their foreninners, occupied more southerly waters along that coast [e.g. The Qualicum walrus fromn Vancouver Island (see BIOME Vol. 7:2, 1987), and walrus fos-, sils from San Francisco Bay, Califomia]. Atlantic walruses, or their ancestors, reached South (Continued page 12) The Champlain Sea was a major feature of the land- scape of eastern North America toward the close of the last glaciation. As the Laurentide ice sheet retreated north of the St. Lawrence Lowland (already depressed by the weight of ice), Atlantic Ocean water flooded in somne 12,000 years ago. At maxi- mum extent about 11,500 years ago this inland sea covered approxi- mately 53,000 km2 between what is now Quebec City and Brockville, including the lowet Ottawa River valley and the Lake Champlain valley of New York and Vermont. As the ice sheet melted away, the land rose slowly' and the sea drained back into the Atlantic, leaving behind fossils ot plants, mnvertebrates and, vertebrates. Having studied remains of Champlain Sea marine mammals (ringed, harp and bearded seuls; bowhead, humpback, finback and white whales) f'or many years, 1 wondered as early as 1977, why walrus bonies had neyer been reported. After all they had been excavated from 14 localities in the eastern approaches to the Chamn- plain Sea -- almost to Quiebc City. The solution to this apparent problein was more a matter of tine and luck rather than paleoenvi- romental factors controiling wal- rus distribution, for ini August 1990, farmer Jacques Daviau pulled some bones out of an ex cavation near bis home at Ste-Julienne, Quebec, 50 km north of Montreal. Tbrough Michel Bouchard, a geologist at the University of Montreal, I received the bonies for study a few weeks *r. 1Icoutil hap4y believé it - thdi'e wérelfour "pieces of an aduit maie walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) skull with fragments of sea shells plastered in grey mud to the roof of the cranium. But we would need to check the type and layering of the sediments at the, site and get a radiocarbon date on bone from the skull before we could esueat this was indeed the frst Chamiplain Sea walrus record. On a glowing day near the end' of September, Jacques Daviau with several relatives, Michel Bouchard with bis colleague Jean- Pierre Guilbault and 1 met at Ste-Julienne. Jacques had arranged for a local backhoe operator to clear a trenich where the walrus skuli had been found. This was a very stylish, enjoyable method of excavation - beats the heuI out of shovcIllng! We quickly, estab- Wc Know You've Been Good. . EspecialIly to us. It's been our joy having you as k customers and knowing you as Onie Good Neiglibor Thank you for being ours. Season's Greetings. From ail of us at Hooper's Jewellers Bowmanville