Cassell's Natural History, Vol. 2 (of 6)

by Unknown

THE AQUATIC OR MARINE CARNIVORA.

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION—THE WALRUS, OR MORSE.

Pinnipedia distinctly Aquatic—The Three Families—Their Common Characteristics—Skeleton—Mobility of Figure—Feet—Dentition—Skull—Tongue—Stomach—Intestine—Peculiar Disposition of Blood-vessels of Liver—Lungs—Sense of Smell—Larynx—Brain—Sense of Hearing—[The Walrus Family]—Characteristics—THE WALRUS, OR MORSE—Geographical Distribution—Fossil Forms—Weight—Size—Appearance in Old Age—Mode of Walk—Habits—On Guard—In the Water—Attacked—Tusks—Dentition of the Young—Uses of the Tusks—Food—Long Fasts—Story of “Jamie,” a Tame Walrus—The Young—Maternal Affection—Massacre—Walrus as an Article of Diet.

THE Walrus, the Sea Lions, and the Seals, collectively termed the Pinnipedia,[203] or by some Pinnigrada,[204] constitute the second well-marked group or sub-order of the Carnivora. They are truly inhabitants of the high seas, the land being to them only an occasional resort, when procreation or other causes induce short visits, or temporary residence thereupon. In the previous chapters it has been noted that certain of the so-called Land Carnivora, the White Polar Bear, or the Common Otter (Lutra), for example, take freely to the water, and even subsist on finny and other prey derived therefrom, but nevertheless, as a rule, such Carnivora only peradventure are semi-aquatic. The one notable instance to the contrary is the Sea Otter (Enhydra), an animal seldom seen on land, though rarely met with far from rocky reefs and islets. Besides mere habit, the Polar Bears and Otters in some points of their organisation—particularly the conformation of the skull of the first, and webbed toes and abundant under-fur in the two last—show a partial gradation and tendency of structure towards their strictly marine brethren, the Seal tribe.

The group of the Pinnipedia is one in which considerable interest is centred, and this for several reasons. Their history, as handed down by classical lore, has a shade of the mythical, and well shows how fable has become engrafted on fact. Within the last two centuries their pursuit has been brimful of incident and adventure. As articles of commerce, the oil and the furs of certain kinds of the Seal tribe are of immense importance; whilst the mere hides of all, besides the Walrus tusks, are commodities of great value. Indeed, to the natives of the Arctic regions, Seals are indispensable as a means of every-day existence. But to the naturalist the fact of their being Carnivores peculiarly adapted to an aquatic life, and the study of their habits generally, are subjects of intense interest.

Moreover, the gradual, in some instances sudden, diminution of Seal life at the hand of man, points to a possible early period of their extinction, as in the case of the Whales and Manatee tribes, and warns, like the Roman story of the Sybilline books, that if we would read the history of the past, the knowledge must be culled ere the records are swept beyond recall.

The three families of the Pinnipedia are denominated in technical language the Trichechidæ,[205] the Otariidæ,[206] and the Phocidæ.[207] The first has but one living representative, the Walrus, or Morse; the second contains the so-called Sea Lions and Sea Bears, more distinctively known as Eared Seals; in the third family are ranged the ordinary Seals, contra-distinguished as Earless Seals. Sufficiently different among themselves in general aspects and habits, as to be recognised at a glance, the three families, nevertheless, have characteristic features common to all, wherefrom the sub-order has received its name. Their toes are united nearly throughout by a web of membrane, as in a duck’s foot, which converts the paws into broad, fin-like organs (the flippers), well adapted for swimming purposes. This feather-footed, pinnipedal condition is associated with a shortening of the upper segments of the limbs, and such peculiar attachment especially of the hind-legs as to leave little more than the feet free. The body is long, usually ample and fleshy at the neck and shoulders, but narrows taperingly behind towards the rump. The head is either flattish and elongated or more or less rounded, but in all cases relatively small to the bulk of the animal. External ears are absent save in the Otary family, which possess a diminutive, conical, or pear-shaped ear-conch. The eyes are full, and often expressive, though usually on land bearing a drowsy look, from their vision being adapted for a watery medium. Unless as the merest rudiment, there are no eyelashes or eyebrows. The muzzle is dog-like, but with long, stiff, though exceedingly mobile moustaches. In the Walrus, however, chiefly on account of its huge tusks, this part of the face is immensely dilated, fleshy, and covered with great pliable bristles, like knitting-needles in calibre; these latter and tusks being adaptations suited to the animal’s mode of feeding. The skin of the body fits loosely, and there is a thick layer of oily fat beneath, its amount depending on general condition, season, and sex. The hairy covering is of two sorts, a stouter, coarser, and at the roots a much shorter, softer kind. As it appears ordinarily, the hair seems uniform and short, and when wetted it clings close to the skin, so that the surface then is smooth and polished, becoming rougher as it dries. Now, it is the soft under-wool, which is in great abundance in some of the Sea Lions only, that constitutes the fur of commerce.

SKELETON OF OTARIA IN THE ATTITUDE OF WALKING.
(Reduced after Murie.)

In the skeleton it is to the amount of cartilage between the bones, along with the gristly rods attaching the ribs to the back and breast-bones, that the extraordinary mobility of figure on land, and easy motions of swimming in the water, which belong par excellence to the Marine Carnivora, are due. Add to this that the hip-bones are narrow and remarkably compressed, the thigh-bones excessively short, the shank-bones long and tied in behind, while great hind-flippers, like double oars rearwards, drive or steer with sculling sweep. The bones of the fore-limb and its modified foot altogether are strong, and remarkably so in the powerful-swimming Sea Lions. All four feet have excessively long toes, the thumb-bones being longest, the fingers lessening to the little toes; in the hind-foot the three middle toes are shorter than the two outer ones. There are tiny nails on each toe at the bone ends, beyond which is a flat spatula-shaped cartilage, of excessive length in the Otary family. The webbed flat feet are thus altogether very peculiar, and when used the entire sole, even including wrist and ankle-bones, is laid flat on the ground, so that two families of the Pinnipedia are really more plantigrade than the Bears. The Common Seals, or Phocidæ, however, never use the hind-feet on land, and the fore-feet but sparingly, while their nails are more claw-like than in their marine congeners. In none of the Seal tribe, though, are the nails or claws retractile, as previously has been shown ([p. 12]) in the Cat and Lion.

The skull in the three families presents modifications partly adapted to their different habits and modes of life, and partly to their race characters. In none, however, do we find the peculiar scissor-like or cutting teeth ([see p. 13]) of the typical Land Carnivora, but, as in the Bear tribe, the dentition exhibits a diminution in the cutting form of the teeth, and a tendency in some of the creatures to a levelling and conical production of the crown of the molars, while in others these latter show a serrate or saw-like character. For example, in the Walrus all the teeth, save the canines, are short and simple-fanged, the canines themselves, or, as they are more commonly termed in this animal, tusks, being of inordinate length and strength. In the Otariidæ, the canines, though themselves of good size, are small in comparison with those of the Morse tribe, while the incisors and single-rooted molars are more conical and prominent. The dentition of the Phocidæ varies considerably, in some the occasionally double-rooted molars acquiring a tuberculate, in others a saw-like or serrate character, while the incisors are notch-crowned. The bony cavity for the eye is open behind; the facial region is less prominently produced than in some of the feline Carnivora. The region of the brain-pan is relatively full, while the skull, as a whole, is elongated and flat. In youth, the cranium of the Pinnipedia has a predominating brain area, and the entire bony surface is smooth and featureless. As age advances, however, in certain of the genera at least, the relation of parts changes, and the face acquires prominence, while great bony crests arise on the summit and back of the head. The tongue does not possess the spines met with in the Cat tribe, though the surface is roughish. In the Seals, but not in the Walrus, the tip is slightly cleft. The stomach is single-chambered. The intestine is considerably longer than in the Felidæ, averaging fifteen times the length of the body, or thereabouts. The glands of the internal coat in some of the tribe are very extensive, and co-ordinate with the excessively rapid digestion.

UPPER SURFACE OF BRAIN OF OTARIA.
(After Murie.)

A curious point in connection with the veins entering the liver is their enormous dilatation. This, by some writers, has been regarded as the means whereby the animal is enabled to remain submerged, the blood being held in these reservoirs instead of passing on towards the heart and lungs to be aërated. But whether this peculiar disposition of the blood-vessels is necessarily connected with diving powers, up to the present time has not been satisfactorily decided. Whatsoever the relation between structure and habit in this respect, it has been observed that the staying-power of the Seal tribe under water increases from youth to age. In the Pinnipedia, the lungs, relatively, are capacious, the animal rising to breathe air at intervals from ten minutes to half an hour or more, when at the surface taking a long and deep inspiration. The nostrils are under the influence of strong fleshy bundles, which firmly compress the orifices when below water. Their sense of smell is well developed, and the larynx simple. The brain in all is not only large, but far surpasses in volume and in amount of convolutions that of the Land Carnivora as a whole. Their docility and intelligence, especially when young, are often remarkable. The voice is plaintive or bellowing, but wanting the great compass and strength of the Felidæ. The nerves supplying the organs of smell, sight, and hearing are large, and the last is most unusually acute. Indeed, it is possibly to hearing more than to the other senses that the Seal tribe are dependent for their safety and living. The facts of sound readily travelling under water, of solid ice being also a good conductor, and of the quietness of the frozen regions, all tend to render this faculty of the highest service, nay, a necessity, to the creatures possessing it. Particularly is the faculty of hearing essential when the Pinniped goes on land, for in the rarer medium of the air its vision is defective, the construction of the lens, &c., being that best fitted for sight under water.

TONGUE AND BACK PARTS OF MOUTH OF OTARIA.
(Reduced after Murie.)

to, Right Tonsil; u, Uvula, or Curtain; T, Tongue.

I.—THE WALRUS FAMILY (TRICHECHIDÆ).

This family in some points resembles the Eared Seals, or Otaries, and in others approaches the Earless Seals, or Phocidæ. The characters of the family are mainly, if not wholly, derived from the Walrus, the only living representative. There are no external ears, but a fair-sized opening indicates the passage. Both sexes, when adult, possess two immense tusks in the upper jaw, quite a notable feature. Along with this, there is full development of the bony parts to accommodate them, and the huge, though abruptly truncated muzzle, is garnished with long and remarkably strong bristly moustaches. The semilunar-shaped nostrils, situated above these, are dilated or powerfully compressed at will, by the thick, fleshy muscles of the upper lip. The eye is smaller than in the Otariidæ and Phocidæ. The body, especially its hinder part, is also heavier. The tail seems absent, though, in reality, nearly reaching to the heels, but a broad flap of skin stretches across from leg to leg, and binding these, hides the tail. The hind limbs appear shorter than in the two neighbouring families, but the above tail-membrane is wider, and allows greater freedom to the legs and feet. The three middle toes are shortest, as is the case with the Common Seals, but not the Otaries. The fore-legs are of intermediate length, strong, stumpy, and although the thumb is biggest, there is a certain equality in the length of the toes. The fore feet, as well as the hind feet, are sufficiently free to be laid flat on the ground. The nails are diminutive, and not claw-like, and the soles of the feet are unusually rough and warty. The tongue is smooth, and not cleft at the tip. The dental series is as follows:—Incisors, 1–1 0–0; canines, 1–1 1–1; premolars, 3–3 3–3; molars, 2–2 1–1 = 24. The tusks, or upper canines, lie outside and almost in front of the dental arch. The incisor and grinding teeth are uncommonly alike, being short, cylindrical, and obliquely truncated at their crowns. The teeth alone are very distinctive of this family, and modified for uses and a diet sui generis. There is no such development of a thick coating of under-fur, as in certain of the Otary family, the root hairs being sparse, and the larger sort softer, shaggier, and not so close pressed as in the Seals.

HEAD OF WALRUS.
(Modified after Murie.)

SKULL AND DENTITION OF WALRUS.
(After De Blainville and Murie.)

A, Skull of Old Animal; B, Palate and Dentition of Young; C, Lower Jaw and Dentition of Young.

THE WALRUS, OR MORSE.[208]—So far as looks are concerned, scarcely a more uninviting fellow can be conceived than this animal, which the Greenlanders and Eskimo call “Awŭk,” from its peculiar guttural cry. It is better known among our own countrymen as the Sea Horse, though naturalists more frequently prefer Walrus, or Morse, words respectively modified derivatives from the old Norse and Lapp languages. Its present range is a narrow belt girding Labrador, Hudson’s and Baffin’s Bays, and skirting the East Greenland coast towards Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, and still farther stretching on to Behring’s Strait and the islands off Alaska. Certain writers are inclined to regard the animal found in the North Pacific as a different species from that inhabiting the North Atlantic seas; but on this head no very justifiable evidence is yet offered. Meantime, its geographical distribution, briefly defined, is the Arctic Circle. Here, thinned by its hereditary enemy, the Polar Bear on the land side, and stricken down wholesale by man seawards, the day of its extermination seems not far distant. The living Walrus, indeed, presents to us a solitary example of a family once more numerous and widespread, and doubtless coincident with a period when climate was different from that now existing where their fossil remains have been discovered. In the deposits of Virginia, on the American Continent, in the Suffolk crag, and possibly in contemporaneous beds around the neighbourhood of Antwerp, bones of Walruses allied to the present northern form have been dug up. But others, moreover, have been found which, from greater size and characteristic peculiarities, evidently belonged to at least two genera (Trichechodon and Alachtherium) distinct from the Arctic animal. Thus, by degrees, the more massive representatives of the family Trichechidæ have died out, while the last of the descendants visibly diminish amongst the bergs of their secluded, ice-bound home.

The Walrus of the present day is a creature which attains large dimensions. Elliott mentions a great fellow, shot in the Behring Sea, nearly 13 feet long, and with a girth of 14 feet; and he estimates the gross weight of an ordinary full-grown male at 2,000 lbs. Well have some likened the hide, which is of a tawny brown colour, to a tough, flexible coat of mail, which harpoon and even bullets penetrate with difficulty. In old age these creatures do not only become obese, shapeless masses, but their gnarled hide, scarred by tusk-marks, bullet, or harpoon wounds, gets blotchy, pustular, and hairless. This, with small, fierce, bloodshot eye, in marked contrast with that of the Seals, and formidable pair of tusks, gives it a ferocious and demoniacal look.

The unusually flattened head seems disproportionately small to the great neck and sack-like body, the tusks and moustaches being all in all either in profile or front view. Their movement on land is very awkward and droll. With high-set shoulders and low hind-quarters, and squat limbs to their heavy body, the fore feet are successively thrust flat forwards from the wrist, each followed by a hitch and swing of the hind foot, as from a pivot on the heel, ending in a sudden sort of jerk or check. Thus they straddle in a clumsy, indolent way along the rough ice, in emergency exerting themselves into a kind of hobbling canter.

This ungainly creature, though so repellent in features, is in reality quiet and inoffensive, unless attacked or roused in love-time, when woe betide those who measure his strength, especially if he reach his native watery element. They are very gregarious, seldom being met with singly, but often in herds from a dozen to several hundreds, as Captain Cook long ago observed. They crowd up from the water on to the rocks or ice one after the other, grunting and bellowing. The first arrived is no sooner composed in sleeping trim, than a second comes prodding and poking with its blunt tusks, forcing room for itself, while the first is urged farther from the water; the second in turn is similarly treated by the third; and so on, until numbers will lie packed close, heads and tails resting against and on each other, in the most convenient and friendly manner possible. There they sleep and snore to their hearts’ content, but nevertheless, according to Elliott, keep guard in a singular fashion. Some one would seem to disturb another; then this fellow would raise his head listlessly, give a grunt and a poke to his nearest companion, who would rouse up a few minutes, also grunt, and pass the watchword to his neighbour, and so on through the herd, this disturbance always keeping some few on the alert. Danger announced, they scuttle pell-mell and topsy-turvy into the water.

Once in the sea, their sluggish deportment vanishes, and activity is the order of the day. Curiosity aroused, or attack threatened, as Lamont remarks, the herd keep near each other. One moment a crowd of grisly heads and long, gleaming white tusks are above the waves; then follow snorting and hasty breathing; immediately thereafter, a host of brown hemispherical backs, followed by pairs of flourishing hind-flippers, and the lot have dived, again to appear at an interval, and the same performance be gone through. If one gets injured, or a young one is in danger, the host of Walruses close round the boat, grunting, rearing, and snorting, and if their wrath be roused, they rush simultaneously to the fight, and attack the boat. When a young Sea Horse is wounded, the parent becomes desperate, and fearlessly exposes herself, or seizes the youngster under her fore-flipper, and makes off, or defends herself and progeny to the death. There is no security to the hunter on the ice, which the animal in its fury will break through, even when six inches thick.

The tusks vary from eight inches to two feet long, and may weigh from five to fifteen pounds; in the males they are generally supposed to be thicker and more divergent. These teeth continuously grow, and, as they wear away, their interior becomes filled with tooth bone. In the young Walrus, there appears to be more teeth than in the adult; but these, as Professor Flower has shown, are exceedingly diminutive denticles, and may or may not remain through life. The first tooth of the molar series in the upper jaw, as in the Dog and other Carnivora, has no predecessor; but the second and third are preceded by milk teeth. In the lower jaw there are three milk teeth.

The formidable canines, when employed as offensive weapons (Lamont notes), not only are used downwards, but by a quick turn of the neck the animal strikes upwards and sideways with equal dexterity. Again, in raising the body out of the water on to the ice-floe after the first jerk forwards, the tusks are dug into the ice with terrific force, and thus the body is hauled on till footing is gained. Broken tusks are by no means rare. But the most important function performed by the tusks is as instruments for procuring food. A part of its time is spent by the Morse on banks and among shoal water, where lie buried in the mud shell-fish in abundance. Certain kinds of Mussels and Cockles are here dug up by the tusks and gulped, often shells and all; but occasionally it swallows Shrimps, Starfish, and marine worms. Dr. Robert Brown states that whenever killed near a Whale’s carcass, the stomach of the Walrus was invariably found crammed with the Whale-flesh. Some say they eat sea-weeds; but the young animal possessed by the Zoological Society, though tried by Mr. Bartlett, refused these, but greedily took Mussels, Whelks, Clams, and the stomachs and intestines and other soft part of fishes cut small. This said young one could not swallow anything larger than a walnut, and from the way in which it used its mouth bristles, in brushing backwards and forwards the food and sucking everything through them, their use as a sieve was very manifest.

Whatsoever their diet they thrive on it, and store up much fat, though less proportionally than Seals. Like some of the Sea Lions, they have the curious habit of swallowing stones, the economy of which is imperfectly understood. But there can be no doubt of the fact, or of another equally strange, that of their protracted fasts. During the autumn months the Sea Horses will muster in force on land, and quite lethargic there doze for days or weeks without tasting food, thus recalling the hibernation of the Bear tribe. The Walrus is infested with skin-parasites and intestinal-worms, and the pebble-swallowing habit is supposed to relieve the irritation of the latter.

Not unfrequently a troop will be found sleeping bolt upright in the water, and so soundly that a boat can approach close to them before they awake. They can remain under water, some say an hour, before requiring to take breath, but the length of time doubtless depends on circumstances; and ordinarily, or when suddenly disturbed, barely a third of that time.

The brain is largely developed, and has many sinuosities, so that in comparison with the Dog or Cat tribes the Walrus ought to possess considerable intelligence. Acts displaying this quality, however, are only sparingly manifested in the young where domestication has been attempted.

A surgeon who accompanied one of the Dundee sealers relates how a juvenile Walrus, being captured, became in a few days quite at home, and a general favourite among the crew. It quickly formed a friendship with an Eskimo Dog which was on board. They ate out of the same dish, although “Jamie,” the Walrus, took good care always to secure the larger share. Whenever the Dog retired to his barrel to sleep, “Jamie” bundled his own fat carcass right on the top of him, and as doggie rebelled against such an unwieldly bedfellow it usually ended in “Jamie” having it all to himself. The latter ate blubber, beef, pork, and almost everything given him, but his favourite dish was pea-soup. Into this he would plunge his face, which procedure left him a most comical countenance. He seemed to know his name well, for even if fast asleep the instant any one cried out “Jamie!” he would rouse up, gaze anxiously about, grunt, grunting in reply. But the most remarkable trait in his character was an intense hatred of solitude. When alone on deck he appeared a picture of misery, grunting and endeavouring to make his way down “’tween deck” after the men; and on more than one occasion precipitated himself, to his peril, plump down the main hatchway, a height of about nine feet. If the cabin-door were open he at once waddled in, laid himself before the stove, and went to sleep; but if the cabin were empty he would not remain a moment. Nothing made him so angry as to shake a piece of paper in his face, or to run suddenly away after caressing him; he then followed with open mouth in a great passion. When a Whale had been killed, and the ship’s crew busy on deck, “Jamie” was in his glory in the very midst of the men covered with grease and oil. At these times he was a perfect nuisance, hindering the men in their duties by continually poking his head first between one seaman’s legs and then another’s, and so on, meantime running a chance of being cut down in the “flensing” operations. He evinced no particular attachment to any one individual on board, liking all equally from cabin-boy to captain. But he knew full well when he did anything wrong; for if a rope’s-end were shown him in a threatening manner, “Jamie” instantly would slink off, furtively casting a look over his shoulder to see if he were followed. After being on board four months he fell ill and died. The expression of this creature’s countenance during his sickness was indicative of a great desire for sympathy from any one who came near. He took his medicine to the last, and when his remains were committed to the deep, regret was felt by all on board.

WALRUSES ON THE ICE.

The Walrus, unlike the Sea Lions, is believed to be monogamous. It is known, however, that in the islands of Behring’s Strait the female gives birth at nine months to a single young one, usually on the ice-floes. The Seals show a remarkable change in the colour of their coat at different periods of their life; but the young Walrus resembles its parents, though it has no tusks, these not protruding to any great extent for two years after its birth. The young evidently suckle their mother up to the period just mentioned, and this seems necessary, because in the absence of tusks the former are unable to procure the shell-fish and other nourishment by digging. It is quite possible that the attachment and maternal instinct of the helplessness of her great full-grown baby to forage and protect itself in part lead to that abandonment of self conspicuously shown in the heartrending stories of hunters. Whether the Morse has the marked migratory habits which we shall afterwards show obtain among the Seals is uncertain. Circumstances rather tend to prove it to be more permanent in its resorts, though occasionally some individuals must straggle from the herd, since at intervals its occurrence on the British coast has been recorded. Undoubtedly its area is decreasing, and the remaining few seek unfrequented spots in high latitudes less accessible to the sealers. In former days their abundance is historically handed down to us in the fact—as Dr. Rink, Dr. Robert Brown, and others tell us—that the Greenlanders “paid their tribute to the Crusades in the shape of Walrus-tusks, delivered in Bergen in 1327, and their weight is noted in a receipt which is still in existence.” But a century ago their numbers were enormous, on the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, sixteen hundred being slaughtered at an onset. Among the first voyagers to Spitzbergen it was no uncommon thing to slay hundreds in a few hours. Lamont tells a story of four boats’ crews, in 1852, massacring nine hundred Walruses in a herd of some thousands which they discovered in one of the small islands to the south of Spitzbergen. So greedy were the hunters that half of their spoil had to be left behind, and the rotting carcases afterwards raised such a stench that the animals deserted this previously favourite haunt, a sad lesson of man’s inhumanity and savage lust of gain.

The more general opinion is that the flesh of the Walrus is tolerably palatable, and certainly the Eskimo consider the hide a dainty for dessert. The tongue, at least, is excellent, and a favourite dish amongst the whale-fishers and the crews of the various Arctic expeditions. Lamont, dining on stewed Walrus veal, mentions its being slightly insipid, but good eating notwithstanding; the old animal’s flesh, however, is by no means so universally admired, although Arctic crews, at a pinch, much prefer it to salt junk.

At one time a considerable trade was devoted to Walrus-hunting, but the diminishment of their numbers has practically reduced it to the lowest ebb. The tusks alone have now any commercial significance, but formerly Walrus hides were used for various purposes, such as machine-bands, carriage-springs, rigging of ships, and the like.

CHAPTER II.
II.—THE SEA LION FAMILY (OTARIIDÆ).

Various Names—Peculiarities of Distribution—Characteristics of the Family—Dentition—Skull—Fossil Remains—Distinction between Fur and Hair Seals—Preparation of the Seal-skin—[THE NORTHERN FUR SEAL]—History—The Pribyloff Islands—Male, Female, Young—“Hauling-grounds”—Wintering—Males at the Islands in Spring—Desperate Battles for Seaward Positions—Approach of the Females—Struggles for Wives—The Young—Abstinence from Food, Water, and Sleep for more than Two Months—Neutral Ground in the “Rookeries”—Habits of the Young—Food—Annual Slaughter—Estimated Numbers—Mode of Killing—[STELLER’S SEA LION]—[GILLIESPIE’S HAIR SEAL]—[HOOKER’S SEA BEAR]—The Wreck of the Grafton—Musgrave’s Narrative—Sufferings of the Castaways—Their Experiences among the Sea Bears—[THE WHITE-NECKED OTARY]—Distribution—Description—“Counsellor Seal”—[THE PATAGONIAN SEA LION]—Historical Associations—Impetus to the Study of the Family—François Lecomte—Its Docility and Intelligence—Its various Performances—Voracity—Lecomte’s Observations—Habits—[THE FALKLAND ISLAND FUR SEAL]—Habitat—The Hunter’s Boats—Driven from their Haunts—Captain Weddell’s Observations—Great Wariness and Speed—Size—Habits—[THE SOUTH AFRICAN, OR CAPE FUR SEAL]—[THE NEW ZEALAND FUR SEAL]—[THE ASH-COLOURED OTARY]—Peron’s Services to Science.

THE old voyagers have termed, and the present race of sealers know, members of the Otary family by such names as Sea Lion, Sea Leopard, Sea Bear, Sea Wolf, Sea Dog, &c., and these terms have even passed from seamen to science. The Otariidæ, like the Common Seals, are found both in the northern and southern hemispheres, but it is a remarkable fact that the species (some would even say genera) inhabiting the northern and southern regions are perfectly distinct the one from the other. Nay more, the one seems representative of the other. For example, there are a certain number of Fur-bearing Seals, and a certain number of Hair Seals, distributed over a wide area of the Arctic and Antarctic Circles, which, in either case, are spread hither and thither into more temperate latitudes. Indeed, the most recent observations tend to show that these animals are migratory in habit, and frequent certain given localities at regular intervals.

SEA LION.
(From the Living Specimen in the Zoological Gardens, London.)

[❏
LARGER IMAGE]

Much confusion for a long time reigned concerning the species of the Sea Lions. This difficulty has arisen from several reasons. Sealers have long distinguished the two kinds, namely, Fur Seals and Hair Seals; but among the thousands and thousands of skins annually brought home, little attention was paid to the animal from which the different skins were obtained, other than to its mere market value. While skins, and occasionally skulls or skeletons, found their way into our museums, seldom have these specimens been certified as belonging to one and the same individual; and in other cases they have been so mixed that identification has been little short of a riddle. Failing precision with regard to skins and skulls, the anatomists have been too prone to found genera and species on imperfect data, ignoring differences of sex, age, and the like, and thus many technical divisions have been introduced which we hardly think it worth while here rigidly to follow.

EAR OF OTARIA. (Natural size.)
After Murie.

The family Otariidæ, or Eared Seals, was distinguished, and so named by the French naturalist M. Péron early in this century, from the animals of this section possessing a small scroll-like external ear, an appendage wanting in the Seals generally. They moreover differ from the latter, and resemble the Walrus, inasmuch as they can freely progress on all-fours on land. Their skull is somewhat Bear-like, the neck being long. The fore-limbs, set well back, are tolerably free, and rest on a thin, broad, but flat hand of great size, encased in a leathery-like substance. The thumb is remarkably stout, and far exceeds the other fingers in length, and on all the merest indications of nails are present. Each finger is tipped with a long spatular cartilage, as are the toes of the hind feet, thus giving them great flexibility. The hind limbs are not so loosely attached by the tail membrane as in the Walrus, and the short tail is apparent close to the heels. The great toe is by far the longest and strongest, size diminishing from this to the little toe. As a rule, this family are nimbler on land than is the Walrus family, though both walk flat-footed in a somewhat similar fashion. The gait of the Otaries, however, from the slightly greater restraint of their closer-linked hind quarters and legs, and from the lengthening of their fore-flippers, is ridiculously peculiar. The fore-flippers, as Mr. Frank Buckland drolly observes, remind one of Bob Ridley’s shoes in a nigger performance. From the wrist they flop, flop, in a semicircle as right and left foot is alternately raised, while the hind quarters hitch, hitch, as each hind foot comes wobble, wobble, under the belly, the great toes even overlapping the fore-flipper. The Sea Lions have long, stout, exceedingly mobile whiskers, though these are by no means so profuse, thick-set, or strong as in the Walrus. Their skeletons differ from the latter in several particulars of minor importance, the chief distinctions being in the skull and dentition. There are on each side three incisors in the upper jaw, and two in the lower. The middle ones are smallest, the upper outer ones more often very large. The canines are still larger, and recurved; but though powerful, not to be compared with the great tusks of the Morse. There are more commonly five teeth of the molar series, of which the crowns are bluntly conical, and the roots simple. The milk-teeth are mostly shed before birth. The dental formula of the Otariidæ may be represented thus:—Incisors, 3–3 2–2; canines, 1–1 1–1; premolars, 4–4 4–4; molars, 2–2 1–1 = 36. The fore part of the skull is not so swollen out and abrupt as in the Walrus, the smaller size of the canines not requiring such space. In youth the skull is long, low, and flat, but in the old males there arise bony crests and processes, altering the shape, especially behind, so that recognition of the species is even difficult.

TEETH OF OTARIA. (After De Blainville.)

As the habits of the family of the Eared Seals are in the main very similar, and seeing how difficult it is from mere outward inspection to tell one species from the other, it seems advisable to follow Mr. J. W. Clark’s mode of treatment, and consider all under the single genus Otaria, though incidentally allusion will be made to such forms as are indicative of generic distinction.

We have in passing mentioned two kinds, namely, Fur and Hair Seals, and we have also stated that these Eared Seals are not confined to one hemisphere, but equally inhabit northern and southern regions. Taking these facts into account we submit the following table as a kind of provisional arrangement for the reader, that he may carry away a notion of what may be termed a combination of commercial and geographical divisions.

Northern.

Southern.

THE NORTHERN FUR SEAL.

FUR SEALS.

THE FALKLAND ISLAND FUR SEAL.
THE SOUTH AFRICAN, OR CAPE FUR SEAL.
THE NEW ZEALAND FUR SEAL.
THE ASH-COLOURED OTARY.

STELLER’S SEA LION.
GILLIESPIE’S HAIR SEAL.

HAIR SEALS.

HOOKER’S SEA BEAR.
WHITE-NECKED OTARY.
THE PATAGONIAN SEA LION.

Thus eliminating doubtful forms, or such as naturalists are not unanimous upon, there are, so to say, some ten well-marked species of Otaries, whereof five belong to the so-called Fur, and five to the so-called Hair Seals. In the northern region there are but three peculiar to the West American coasts, &c., whereas seven inhabit the southern region. These latter range over a wide area, from warmer latitudes to the frigid zone. But it is very remarkable that in the whole of the Northern Atlantic none of the Sea Lions are now to be found. It is, however, noteworthy that in the neighbourhood of Antwerp, Professor P. J. Van Beneden has described some few fragmentary remains of a Seal allied to Otaria, which he has named Mesotaria ambigua. These fossil bones, along with numerous other remains of Pinnipedia and Cetacea, have been dug out of the upper Tertiary strata of Flanders.

As regards the precise geographical distribution, this will be referred to in connection with the species themselves. The absolute distinction between Hair and Fur Seals is one rather of degree than of kind, for as we have before hinted, all the family possess, at least in their early condition, evidence of under-fur, sparse or otherwise. But undoubtedly as age advances in some kinds it is very abundant, in others quite the reverse. Hence this character, though so apparent in some cases, is not one thoroughly to be relied on so far as zoological divisions are concerned, though very considerable stress has been laid upon it by some writers. So far as the skin is looked on as a mercantile commodity it unquestionably is a most useful mode of division, but a classification founded thereon must be taken with the accustomed “grain of salt.”

Diagram of a Vertical Section of the Skin of the Fur Seal, showing how (h) the coarser Hairs penetrate quite through (s) the Skin, while (f) the Fur has Roots comparatively superficial. (After Murie.)

If we look at a lady’s Seal-skin jacket, we at once observe its rich brown colour, and the velvety softness and denseness of the fine hairs composing it. If this be compared with the coarse, hard, or salted dry Seal-skin as imported, or, still better, with the coat of the living Fur Seals, one is struck with the vast difference between them, and wonders how the coarse or oily-looking, close-pressed hair of the live animal can ever be transformed into the rich and costly garment above spoken of. Passing our finger among the hairs of the Cat or Dog, we may notice short fine hairs at the roots of the longer, coarser, general covering of the animal. This is the so-called under-fur. It equally obtains in most of the land as in the aquatic Carnivora. But in the greater number of these animals the short hairs are so few and often fine as to be comparatively speaking lost sight of among what to our eyes constitutes the coat. The remarkable feature, then, in the Fur Seals is its abundance and density. The operation which the skin undergoes to bring out, so to say, the fur may be briefly described as follows:—The skin, after being washed rid of grease, &c., is laid flat on the stretch, flesh side up. A flat knife is then passed across the flesh substance, thinning it to a very considerable extent. In doing this the blade severs the roots of the long strong hairs which penetrate the skin deeper than does the soft delicate under-fur. The rough hairs are then got rid of, while the fur retains its hold. A variety of subsidiary manipulations, in which the pelt is softened and preserved. are next gone through. These we need not enter into, but only further state that the fur undergoes a process of dyeing which produces that deep uniform tint so well known and admired. We may, however, mention that it is the dyeing process which causes the fur to lose its natural curly character and to present its limp appearance.

THE NORTHERN FUR SEAL.[209]—The habits and life history of this animal are probably more accurately known than those of any other of the Eared Seals. Fully a hundred and twenty years ago Steller, a naturalist in the employ of the Russian Government, spent a season in Kamstchatka and the islands in the neighbourhood of Behring Strait. During his sojourn he carefully studied the habits and anatomy of an animal termed by him Sea Bear, which existed in innumerable quantities in the region in question, publishing the results of his observations in the “Transactions” of the St. Petersburg Academy. A missionary, Krasheninikoff by name, some years later, under the title of Sea Cat, also gave an account of the same animal, but possibly deriving his information from the preceding writer. For a long period little was added to their narratives. In 1868 the Russian Government ceded to the United States the territory of Alaska, including several of the Aleutian Islands, and among others the Pribyloff group. These latter are remarkable and important, inasmuch as they are the resort of literally myriads of Seals, some of which are exceedingly valuable for their fur. A Captain Pribyloff had discovered the small island which bears his name in 1786, and thereafter a Russian company established themselves, carrying on an extensive trade in skins and oils up to the date of cession. The Russian Bishop Veniaminov, in 1840, gave an account of the Seals of the Pribyloff group, containing a statistical table of their probable numbers and evident decrease unless measures were taken to prevent their wholesale extermination.

The American Government wisely appointed agents, the result being reports by Captain C. Bryant and Mr. H. W. Elliott, which contained wonderfully graphic histories and descriptions of this Fur Seal and others of the group. To these gentlemen’s reports we are chiefly indebted, and do not hesitate to abstract without stint.

The “Kautickie” is the name given by the Russians to this Fur Seal. It repairs to the Pribyloff Islands to breed in almost fabulous numbers, between the beginning of May and the middle of September, some few stragglers occasionally remaining even to the close of December; but between the beginning of June and end of September, they remain on the islands in grand force. The haunts of these creatures during the winter season, after leaving the islands, are doubtful; but it is supposed that they take up quarters by a southward migration to the Pacific coasts of the United States. At all events, it is known that in the stomachs of the voracious Killer-Whales and Sharks the remains of these and other species of Seal are not unfrequently obtained by the whalers in the region in question; and likewise the Indians of the North-west American coast, as low as California, then capture them in numbers.

The males, when full-grown, are between six and seven feet long, the females not being over four to four feet and a half in length, from head to tail. The former will weigh between four to six hundred pounds, the latter scarcely reaching one hundred pounds, but oftener eighty or less. The male, with a greyish shoulder, has the rest of the body varying from a reddish-grey to deep, almost pure, black; the nose and lips are brownish; the breast and abdomen with more of an orange and reddish-brown tint; the naked parts of the hind limbs are much blacker. The female is considerably lighter, being nearly uniform grey above, and brownish-grey on the sides. The young, previous to the first moult, is uniformly glossy black, with a yellowish-brown tint on the under parts. As it grows older, it becomes gradually lighter, especially in the females, and the two sexes then can hardly be distinguished. The distinction even in the young animal between the long, coarse hairs of the outer coat, and the dense silky fur of the inner coat, is very marked. There is occasionally some variation in the colour of the sexes, both as regards age and otherwise, but the above is that most common. The male of this Fur Seal does not attain its full size until about the sixth year, although it breeds at the fourth year. The females bear their first young when three years of age. The breeding-ground, or “rookery,” as the colony of the Seals is termed, lies among the belt of loose rocks along the shores, between high-water line and the base of the cliffs, and varies in width from 60 to 150 feet. There are, besides, sand-beaches of large extent, and these stretch more inland to grassy hillocks; the said areas are used as temporary resting-places, playgrounds, and neutral territory, where young, old, and infirm or wounded may resort to undisturbed. To these sandy beaches and uplands the term “Hauling-grounds” is given, from the manner in which the Seals drag themselves out of the water in going towards them.

“ROOKERY” OF FUR SEALS.

From whatever reason, the adult males seem to leave the herd and betake themselves to the Pribyloff Islands in the spring months, when, in the first few days of May, they make their appearance, and in a suspicious, doubtful manner swim idly about, apparently reluctant to land. Soon, however, the older “bulls” approach the loose rocky shore, and commence to locate themselves. Each individual animal takes possession of a piece of ground about ten feet square, and, as those fresh from the sea approach, there begins a series of battles as to which is to retain the ground first occupied. All during the month of May, and even to the first week of June, this terrible warfare proceeds incessantly, and those next the water have to resist all comers, or themselves be forced farther back. Meantime, from the beginning till almost towards the end of June, the pregnant females make their appearance, first in small numbers, until the great body arrive in mass at the close of the month. Each male retains his position as best he can, whilst some of the females hesitate to land, calling out as if in search of some particular mate. The males coaxingly strive to inveigle them ashore, and no sooner do the females approach than they are laid hold of, and a general warfare among the whole “rookery” ensues. The quiet, unoffending, small-sized females are subjected to dreadful usage. The strong and powerful males secure, where possible, from twelve to fifteen partners in their seraglio, but to retain these is indeed a most serious business. Day and night the males, who have never left their station for at least six weeks, have still to keep watch and ward over their accommodating spouses, the only sense of meum and tuum being force. If the master of the harem dare for a moment to doze, down comes his more wideawake neighbour from behind, to obtain by foul means what he cannot obtain by fair; or some slippery partner, desirous of change, seeks to escape the bondage of her lord. Then ensues internecine and domestic strife, in which all the neighbouring males join, whenever there is a chance of capturing a coveted female. The poor wives suffer equally with their spouses—trampled, bitten, and dashed about. It results that he alone keeps who has the power to withstand his numerous assailants. Some of the females may have the fortune to get more comfortably settled than others, which are bandied from one location to another, until most of the males obtain a few partners, the lucky ones in front securing and holding the greatest number, those behind being obliged to content themselves with half-a-dozen or thereabouts.

A few days only have elapsed, and matters settled down more quietly, when the females give birth each to a single one. The little fellows soon find their voice—a kind of bleat like a young lamb’s,—begin paddling about, and then suckle. They gorge themselves heartily with the rich creamy milk. But, strange to say, the mother seems remarkably indifferent to her offspring; and, if it stray beyond the limits of the family group, it may be abducted by the other Seals for all that she cares.

SEAL FIGHT.

About this time, many of the old males who have successfully held their position become exhausted, and now and again the less fortunate or single males behind, in stronger or fresher condition, drive the former from their posts, and the latter take their places. There is no wonder that exhaustion succeeds. Indeed, one of the most remarkable features in the history of these Sea Lions is that for two months and more these heroic males, that arrived fat and plump from their winter quarters, have held their positions on land against all comers, and this without tasting food, water, or almost sleep during this period. It seems scarcely credible that animals incessantly on the watch, excited and bearing the brunt of sanguinary contests, should be able to undergo starvation under such circumstances. This fact is almost unique in natural history; for, though hibernation for long periods is common to the Bear, Hedgehog, &c., their winter sleep is accompanied by cessation of all bodily exertion, and the functions of circulation, respiration, and digestion are comparatively at a standstill. In truth, how this and other species of Otaria, for the habit is not limited to the Fur Seal, endure such a lengthened abstinence, physiology fails to explain.

While the families, in groups as afore mentioned, with their dominate lords, hold the favourite grounds, the great mass of the younger members of the community are not thoroughly excluded from the domains of the “rookery.” By common consent, here and there long narrow lanes of neutral ground are left open from the beach upwards, and along these continually pass to and fro the non-breeding animals. These go to the rear, where they pack themselves in a kind of general medley, their gregarious nature leading them there to swarm.

The young animals in the beginning of August begin to take to the water, with which they soon become familiar, frolicking about, and returning like lazy Dogs to sleep after their exertions. They grow fast, and gathering in squads swarm over the whole “rookery.” The colony now begins to break up from the family-parties first instituted. Some besport themselves, or possibly feed in the neighbourhood; others range on the sandy and grassy uplands, in groups of hundreds to thousands, and seem to play and enjoy themselves in a rollicking, lively manner. Their gambolling is very good-natured, then seldom quarrelling. They appear to delight in dashing through the breakers, and “hauling up” on the surf-beaten shore. In dull, foggy weather, they crowd close together in myriads, and a bright, warm day sends them off quickly to the water, seemingly to avoid heat.

What they live on during all this period it is difficult to state, for the fish round the island appear to be driven off on the arrival of the Sea Lions. They, nevertheless, subsist and thrive. In the stomachs of most of the older animals several pounds’ weight of pebbles are usually found.

At one time 100,000 young males were killed annually, the females not being interfered with. This will show how enormous the number of Seals on these islands was. But the slaughter has not always been wisely regulated. When the Russian American Company first hunted, up till 1837, they ran great danger of exterminating all, killing every animal regardless of sex; and complications have occasionally arisen between the United States and Great Britain about the right of fishery, the former Government being desirous of preventing the extinction of the Seals, and on that account claiming a wide jurisdiction in the Behring Sea. Mr. Elliott, by roughly numbering the animals in a family group, and estimating the given area of the “rookeries” when the greatest mass are on shore, calculated the total numbers at between four and five millions.

The killing of these Seals is quite a peculiar occupation of the islanders. After the breeding season, the hunters take advantage of the dull and foggy weather, and creep down between the herd and the water. Then suddenly rising and shouting together they drive landwards the affrighted animals, though many of course escape. Closing on them, they allow the females and the very old males by degrees to pass, and then drive the remainder at a slow rate towards the killing-ground, some distance off. Watchers remain over night with them, and in the morning, when the Seals have rested and cooled down, the work of slaughter begins. Squads of forty or fifty are separated, and the islanders then surround these in a body, the animals meantime huddling together and treading over each other’s flippers, cannot well attack or defend themselves, and they are then clubbed by blows on the head. While this bloody process is going on, a number of the men dexterously skin the animals, and others look after the blubber, and such parts as are useful for food and other purposes.

STELLER’S SEA LION,[210] OR THE HAIR SEAL OF THE PRIBYLOFFS, is an animal in some respects not unlike the Fur Seal originally described by the aforesaid Russian naturalist. But it is a much more powerful animal, and though in contiguity to its congener originally named by this author Sea Bear, it differs in habits as well as in other particulars, besides the broad fact of its possessing such sparse, and, when old, such absence of under-wool that it comes to be classed as a true Hair Seal. The male and female animal are of unequal size; the former attains a bodily length of eleven or twelve feet, and a weight of 1,000 lbs. and more, while the latter is barely more than half the dimensions and weight of her partner. The male has quite a leonine appearance and bearing, and often exhibits great ferocity of expression. His colour is of a golden rufous tint, darker behind, or occasionally with brownish patches, the limbs more nearly approaching black. Some variation occurs with regard to the brindling and hue generally, the female being slightly paler than the male.

Their movements on land, though in many respects similar to, are not so free as those of the Fur Seal, and never are they found far from the water. Some of them herd along with the Fur Seals, their powerful organisation enabling them to hold and retain the shore locations. They, however, congregate in breeding-grounds slightly apart. While polygamous, they have not the regular system, nor give such attention to their harem as does the Callorhinus. In comparison with the latter, their numbers on the Pribyloffs are not great, in all between thirty and forty thousand. They are shy creatures, and, as Elliott remarks, on the slightest approach of man, a stampede into the water is the certain result.

SEA LIONS ON THE FARALLONE ISLANDS.

Their voice is said to be a deep and grand roar, and when in mass has been likened to the howling of a tempest. The males come to these islands in the beginning of May, and the females a month later. The young are soon born, and at birth average twenty to twenty-five pounds, and two feet long, and then are of a dark chocolate-brown colour, with great watery grey-blue eyes. They shed their coat in October and become lighter, but do not precisely resemble their parents until they grow more adult.

This animal being destitute of fur, its skin is of little value; but their hides, their fat, their flesh, their sinews, and intestines, are all useful to the Aleutian islanders. The last, the throat-linings, and the skin of the flippers, are tanned into excellent leather, and both waterproof coats and the natives’ boots (tarbosars) are made out of them. Oil-vessels are made from the stomachs, the sinews are used for threads for binding their skin-canoes, and to the flesh of this species there is given a decided preference.

Steller’s Sea Lion has a wider distribution, probably, than O. ursina, and stretches around Kamstchatka and the Asiatic coast to the Kurile Islands. Moreover, on the American coast as far as California they are occasionally met with. Indeed, one of the sights at San Francisco is the “Ocean House,” a large hotel opposite the Seal Rocks at the mouth of the bay, whence a good view is obtained of a “rookery” of Sea Lions, now rigidly preserved by the American Government. They also inhabit the Farallone Islands about thirty miles from San Francisco.

The natives of Kamstchatka, to the coast of Siberia, capture the Sea Lions differently from the Pribyloff Islanders. In the summer months, Salmon swarm at the mouths of the rivers, the Seals following and preying on them. Strong wide-meshed nets, made of Seal-thong, are staked in a curve open to the confluence of the stream. The fish find a free passage, but the pursuing Seals become entangled, and the natives in flat-bottomed skin-boats approach and despatch the victims with rude bone implements. In the spring and fall they capture them on the floating ice, and during winter watch for their rising out of their breathing-holes to rest awhile, while the hunter deals destruction from behind a snow-bank or ice-cake. These natives convert the prepared hide for the Dog and Reindeer sledges and other purposes, and the blubber is a godsend.

GILLIESPIE’S HAIR SEAL,[211] OR SCHLEGEL’S JAPANESE OTARY.—This animal also inhabits the bays and islands of the Californian coast, but the first good account of it came from the pen of Professor Schlegel, of Leyden, in his “Fauna Japonica,” though, curiously enough, he confounded it with Steller’s Sea Lion. It undoubtedly frequents the Japanese coasts, and, possibly, other spots in the North Pacific. Dr. Macbain, in describing a skull from California, showed its specific distinction. Indeed, from its having one pair less of upper molars, a narrow muzzle and facial profile, and great skull-crest, it has been placed by Gill and others in a separate genus (Zalophus). But as before indicated, we prefer to consider the whole of these Sea Lions as belonging to Otaria. The colour of this animal much resembles that of the last, or slightly more of a pale brownish-grey, underneath yellowish, but also darker in the limbs. The sexes approach each other in this respect. It is smaller in size than O. Stelleri, the largest known male being little over six feet long, and the female relatively smaller.

PALATE OF HOOKER’S SEA BEAR.

PALATE OF PATAGONIAN SEA LION.

HOOKER’S SEA BEAR.[212]—Among the collection obtained during the eventful voyage, under Captain Sir J. C. Ross, in the Erebus and Terror to the Antarctic regions, were the skin and skeleton of a Sea Bear from the Auckland Islands, which Dr. Gray named after the celebrated botanist of the Expedition, Dr. (afterwards Sir) Joseph D. Hooker. No account of the life-history of the animal accompanied these remains, but the narrow skull, deeply concave palate-bones, and other osteological features, clearly showed its specific distinction. The precise geographical distribution of this Sea Bear thereafter became a knotty point, and from general outward resemblance of the Otary tribe one to the other it has been confounded with several of them. The investigations of Mr. J. W. Clark of Cambridge, however, set this at rest, and without enlarging into particulars, we shall briefly say that he has shown that besides the English voyagers, the French Expedition in the Astrolabe (1826–29), and Captain Thomas Musgrave (of whom I shall say something immediately), obtained it at the Aucklands. Moreover, the French, in their last Transit of Venus Expedition—to Campbell Islands—there met with it, and Mr. Clark identified it with a sub-fossil form found by Dr. Hector on the coast of New Zealand.

The original specimens of this Hair Seal in the British Museum are throughout of a darkish grey, inclining to yellow, or yellowish-brown, and what appears to be the male is about five feet long, while the female is smaller and yellower in colour.

The little that we know of the habits of this creature is chiefly derived from Captain Musgrave’s extraordinary narrative, “Castaway on the Auckland Islands.” In 1863, the schooner Grafton, of Sydney, was wrecked on the islands in question, where captain and crew were condemned to reside for twenty months. His journal of their sufferings on these desolate rocks was written in Seal’s blood, and the editor of the gallant captain’s narrative appropriately quotes worthy old Richard Hakluyt’s words:—“How shall I admire your heroicke courage, ye marine worthies beyond all names of worthinesse!”

Before the distressed seamen had been a week on shore, the captain notes “that the Seals are very numerous here, and go roaring about the woods like wild cattle; indeed, we expect they will come and storm the tent some night.” They found the sucklings delicious eating, exactly like lamb, but the flesh of the old males was rejected. Indeed, stewed, boiled, or roasted Seal’s flesh and liver, with roots fried in oil, and occasionally mussels and fish, constituted dainties; for it happened at times they were driven to extremities for lack of fare. For a while a few crumbs of biscuit were regularly laid on the table, but only to look at, “or point at,” as Paddy would say. On a single occasion they obtained the milk of a slain female, which they considered to be rich and good, and superior to Goats’ milk. Needful of clothing, blankets, and shoes, by a rude manipulation with lye of ashes, drying and rubbing, and by tanning with bark, the skins were thus rendered available. Seals’ tracks were found at the top of a mountain four miles from the water. They run fast in the bush, and where it is thick have an advantage over men, even climbing rocky cliffs and steep slippery banks almost inaccessible to the latter. Captain Musgrave believes their sense of smell to be very keen, but neither hearing nor sight acute on land. The old “bulls” have long, coarse, almost bristly fur on their neck and shoulders, which ruffles up when attacked, and this, with their great teeth, gives them rather a formidable leonine appearance. These “bulls” are savage, and so fierce that caution is required in facing them; they even are so bold as to leave the water and chase a man. One great and very old dark-coloured fellow, “king of a mob,” was christened “Royal Tom,” whose daring and dignity would barely allow him to move off when driven hard. On board the vessel which rescued the castaway survivors was a very large courageous Dog, which would fasten on the Otaries, but get dreadfully torn, and was no match in point of strength. Their tenacity of life is extraordinary. For instance, one received two bullets, had its head split open with an axe, and brain hanging out, but nevertheless dragged along the beach the men who were trying to keep him out of the water by hanging on his hind flippers. The males arrive in October, fat, choose ground, fight furiously, and remain until the end of February. The females go with young about eleven months, and bear a single offspring in February; but previous to parturition, in December and January, the smaller timid females wander in the bush bellowing in a dismal manner. The new-born young are black, become greyer after a few weeks, and when older brownish, the adult colouring following. Musgrave recounts the amusing manner in which the mother coaxes the young towards the water, which at first it is averse to enter, and she often displays ingenuity in getting it in. She puts it on her back, swims along gently, while the little bleating fellow slips or splutters off into the sea; the mother again gets underneath, or even becoming angry, gives it a cruel bite or slap with flipper. Ultimately, after such drilling, the youngsters take to the water of their own accord, and paddle about or play on shore in groups. There is a periodical migration of these Hooker’s Sea Bears, but it is not so regular as in some other species, several remaining in the same quarters all the year round. They shift their camp, though, in the bays, and sleep ashore only at night. When in the water Captain Musgrave assures us their speed is very great, not exceeding twenty miles an hour, and they have a most extraordinary power of arresting their progress instantaneously.

WHITE-NECKED OTARY,[213] OR AUSTRALIAN SEA LION.—Under these two names, and those of the Counsellor Seal, the Cowled Seal, and Gray’s Australian Hair Seal, has the Sea Lion been called which inhabits the shores of Australia. Two localities are specially noted—Houtman’s Abrolhos and King George’s Sound, on the west and south-western parts of the continent—though Mr. Scott mentions that this species was formerly very abundant in Bass’s Strait, as also on the north-west coast of Australia, and that it is still found tolerably numerous on the Seal Rocks off Port Stephens, a short distance north of Sydney. Very old males of this animal are stated to attain a length of twelve feet, and to be as large in girth as a Horse, but adults from eight to nine feet long are more commonly met with, the females being still smaller. Mr. J. W. Clark deftly catches the salient points as follows:—“The adult has the face, front, and sides of the neck, all the under surface, sides, and back, dark or blackish-brown, passing into dark slaty grey on the extremities of the limbs; the hinder half of the crown, the nape and back of the neck, rich deep fawn-colour. It is the peculiar shape of this stripe of light colour stretching over head and neck which has given it the name of ‘Cowled Seal,’ and perhaps the appellation ‘Counsellor Seal,’ which I find is also applied to it, may have been suggested from a fancied resemblance to a barrister in his wig.” The males and females differ in colour, the latter being lighter in tint. The white neck-spot, it is suggested, distinguishes the males. The “pups” are born black, and have an abundant coat of soft fur which diminishes with age, and in the old animal is entirely wanting. The skins, therefore, are of no great value, but as a commercial product the oil is of more importance.

THE PATAGONIAN SEA LION,[214] OR COOK’S OTARY.—Magellan, after whom the Strait dividing Tierra del Fuego from Patagonia is called, in his eventful voyage (1520) found, off the Rio de la Plata, what the Spaniards knew as a Sea Wolf (Lobos de mar), doubtless the Otary above named, for even in the present day the Government of Buenos Ayres protect the colony of Seals of one of the islands at which the celebrated navigator touched. Now these animals are scarce, and their range somewhat limited, but when the buccaneers carried fire and sword into the Spanish provinces they were of frequent occurrence, not only around Patagonia and the neighbouring islands, but up the Peruvian coast. Few of the voyagers that afterwards passed along these shores but had some slight adventure to relate concerning these creatures.

It was this animal that attracted the attention of Captain Cook and his naturalist, Forster, both describing it, the latter giving it the specific name of jubata, from the Latin juba (a mane), a feature, however, that some naturalists of the present day are inclined to deny. But the fact is that at that date many exceedingly old, large, and rugged individuals of this species existed which are no longer to be met with.

Apart from the historical connections attaching to this creature, inasmuch as many famous voyagers’ names have been associated with it, in our own generation it is remarkable as that first brought alive to England. The individual in question was latterly purchased by the Zoological Society, and died in their Gardens in 1867, in consequence of having swallowed a fish-hook among the food given to it. This notable animal created an interest in the Eared Seals (hitherto little studied) which since has led to the introduction of several living examples and of different species. To those who only knew the Seal tribe from the common sort, this Otaria seemed a marvel of docility, and at a glance most distinct in appearance, habits, and intelligence from anything heretofore exhibited. It was originally captured in the neighbourhood of Cape Horn, and François Lecomte, the French sailor into whose possession it fell, exhibited the animal for a short time in Buenos Ayres before bringing it to London, where for a time he earned a living by showing it off. By kindness and dint of training he taught it to become quite a performer in its way, mounting a ladder with perfect ease, and descending indifferently, head or tail foremost. It fired a small cannon, and went through several other performances indicative of the teachableness of its disposition and the successful assiduity of its trainer. From being cribbed, cabined, and confined, the animal, on its transference to the Zoological Gardens, was allowed the use of a spacious pond, and along with others of the Seal tribe exhibited greater freedom and naturalness of habit. So well known have its appearance and little tricks of mounting chairs, catching with open mouth fish thrown towards it, kissing its keeper, and so on, become, that it is needless to enter upon a detailed account of these matters. There is no doubt, however, that this animal, and others of different species since shown at the Zoological Gardens, Brighton Aquarium, and elsewhere, have manifested traits of brain-power of a superior kind. One feature has struck all, namely, its voracity, twenty-five pounds of fish a day being barely more than short commons. If we estimate this amount to each individual, namely, an equivalent of 9,000 pounds a year, and remember that there exist colonies of these animals more than a million in number, the wonder arises that the finny tribe is not exterminated in those spots inhabited by the Seals.

SEA LION DOZING ON HIS BACK.

SEA LION FAST ASLEEP.

SEA LION CLIMBING.

SEA LION IN WATCHFUL ATTITUDE.

SEA LION LICKING HIS LEG.

SEA LION SCRATCHING WITH HIND FOOT.

The success accompanying the above animal’s exhibition led to the Zoological Society’s sending Lecomte to the Falklands to procure more. Although he obtained a number, most met mishaps and died before reaching London. His account of their habits and nature corroborates the earlier observers. According to him, families range from six to twenty, a dozen being the average, while a herd would be composed of several families. Located in the islands and isthmuses, an old male guards as sentinel, and signals, by a growl, approaching danger. Between sleeping and procuring food they pass their time, often lying huddled in a drowsy condition. At high tides, night and day, they take to fishing near the entrance of fresh-water rivulets into the sea, at such times remaining for a whole tide dabbling after fish and crustaceans. In capturing their prey, they swallow it above or below the water. The animal at the Zoological Gardens, as a rule, came to the surface to swallow, but the other Seals more often did so underneath. This Otaria, Lecomte affirms, never drinks water, that which he first brought to England not receiving fluid for a year, but he had seen the Common Seals suck water like a Horse. He certified to the fact of their pebble-swallowing propensities. The general habits of this animal are but a repetition of what has been said of other species, and need not detain us. The greater number migrate towards the south from July till November, between these months remaining in the neighbourhood of the Falklands. The young are of a deep chocolate colour, when a year old becoming paler, the females being nearly grey, the old male of a rich brown hue, the flippers in all being darker. There is a sparse under-wool in the young, which sensibly diminishes with age.

Captain Cook says he met with immense males, twelve or fourteen feet in length, and eight or ten in circumference. Such big customers now no longer exist, though the truth of what the circumnavigator asserts would seem to be substantiated by the fact of skulls of enormous size being found hither and thither, weather-worn, on the beach. These exhibit the remarkable peculiarity of prodigious crests, so that they have been compared with the characteristic change shown in the Gorilla, to which allusion has already been made (Vol. I., p. 17).

THE FALKLAND ISLAND FUR SEAL.[215]—The head-quarters for the capture of this valuable species of commercial Fur Seal are the Falkland Isles, and the South Shetlands within the Antarctic Circle, but it is also found on the coast of South America, namely, around Patagonia, Cape Horn, and the islands bordering Chili. It doubtless also betakes itself to several of the small southern oceanic islets, such as the New Orkneys, South Georgia, and indeed very possibly migrates to the ice-bound areas surrounding the Southern Pole. Captain Abbott, who was formerly resident on the Falklands, says that Seal skins and Seal oil are two of the principal products of these islands. The boats employed in collecting these articles “are usually from twenty to thirty tons in measurement, and are manned by four or five men. They are sent out laden with provisions, casks for the oil, and salt for preserving the Seal skins; they are frequently out for months together, cruising about the islands, and seldom return without a full cargo.” The favourite locality of this valuable Fur Seal at the Falklands is the Volunteer Rocks at the northern entrance to Berkeley Sound, these rocks, owing to the heavy swell, being inaccessible except in fine weather and after many days’ calm. The truth is the hunters have driven these animals nearly away from their old quarters, the few that still remain being excessively shy. The best, almost classical account of the habits of this species, is that of Captain Weddell, in his “Voyage towards the South Pole,” between 1818–1821. When he visited the South Shetlands, so little did they apprehend danger from man, that they lay quietly by while their neighbours were being killed and skinned. But, as he says, they soon acquired habits for counteracting danger, by placing themselves on rocks whence they precipitated themselves into the water. Their agility is very great, outstripping men running fast in pursuit. The absurd story of their throwing stones at their pursuers with their tails, Weddell accounts for by their awkward trailing gait, and in an attempt to scamper, scattering rocky fragments hither and thither behind them. He mentions their exceeding disproportion of size, the males, as in other species, being the more bulky, the latter being six to seven feet long, the females seldom more than four feet, and often less. He computed the females at about twenty to one male. They assemble gregariously on the coasts at different periods and in distinct classes. Like the Northern Fur Seals, the males separate and go ashore in November, where they await the arrival of the females. By December these latter begin to land, and the seraglio and system of battle resemble what has been described in the Fur Seal of the Pribyloff Islands. The period of gestation is about a twelvemonth, probably less, and the young are born in December. By the middle of February these latter, said to be taught to swim by their mothers, take to the water. At first they are black, a few weeks later become grey, and afterwards, as they frequent the sea, moult and acquire their peculiar furry coats. What the mariners call Dog Seals, that is, those a couple of years old, land in crowds as February terminates and March goes on. But by the end of April they once more make for the water, and scarcely land again until June wanes, then they occupy irregularly the land and water for several weeks. Towards the close of August the herds of young Seals of both sexes again return on shore for a few weeks, and retire ultimately to the water, to be succeeded by the old and more powerful males, as above stated. Excepting the difference of season, their habits much resemble those of O. ursinus. As in the other Otaries, colour varies with age. The darker tint of the young, as they grow older, tones down to a rich brown, with the under parts yellow, the hairs being tipped with greyish-white. The hairs are by no means so strong as in the Hair Seals, while the under-fur is thick, soft, and of a ruddy brown hue. Their skins are among the most valuable in the market.

FALKLAND ISLAND FUR SEAL.

THE SOUTH AFRICAN, OR CAPE FUR SEAL.[216]—We are still, as Mr. J. W. Clark remarked a few years ago, in a “lamentable state of ignorance about the Sea Lions of the Cape of Good Hope—indeed, we cannot say with certainty whether there are one or two species—though, from that centre of trade, cargoes of 60,000 or 70,000 skins come annually to the London market.” In 1875, the Zoological Society obtained, presented through Sir Henry Barkly, a living specimen of Sea Lion, taken at the Cape, which was smaller in size than the Patagonian Sea Lion (O. jubata) exhibited along with it. This individual had a whitish-red coat, grizzled with blackish hairs, the under side of the body, as likewise the short fur, being of a richer reddish-brown. When it came out of the water, its then sleek skin closely resembled that of the latter well-known example of a Hair Seal. The process of dressing the skin we have already described, doubtless, would bring out the fact of its possessing the rich fur coat not obvious in the living animal. This would appear to agree with the barely adult stage of the animal. Flat skins, apparently of this same species from the Cape, figure largely in the trade sales, and those similar to the above in age are technically called “middlings.” The smaller sorts of the sale catalogue, “pups,” or “black pups,” have smooth, soft, polished, black hairs more ruddy beneath. The large skins with a slight mane, the “large wigs” of the dealers, have whitish fur intermixed with black hairs and short reddish under-fur. The habits of the live animal in confinement quite resemble those of the other Sea Lions living alongside.

THE NEW ZEALAND FUR SEAL.[217]—The investigations of Mr. J. W. Clark (“Proceedings of the Zoological Society,” 1875) tend to the conclusion that the Fur Seals originally met with by Captain Cook on the shores of New Zealand, and also by him and Flinders in Bass’s Strait and the coasts of Tasmania, belonged to one and the same species. J. R Forster, the naturalist who accompanied Cook, made some spirited sketches (now in the British Museum) of the living forms, which agree in most respects with animals obtained in 1871–5 by Dr. Hector in New Zealand. In 1773, during his second voyage of circumnavigation, Captain Cook cast anchor in Dusky Bay, New Zealand, and records that he saw great numbers of Seals on the small rocks and islets in this neighbourhood. Forster made careful notes thereon, besides his drawings. He says they are Seals with ears, hands free, feet webbed on the under surface, naked between the fingers, hardly nailed. Gregarious in habits, they are timid, and fling themselves off the rocks into the sea at the approach of man; but the most powerful resist when attacked, bite the weapons used against them, and even venture to assail the boats. They swim with such rapidity under water that a boat rowed by six strong men can scarcely keep up with them. Tenacious of life to a degree, a fractured skull did not despatch them. The weight of the full-grown is 220 lbs., of cubs scarcely 12 lbs.; the former are six or seven feet long, the latter barely two and a half. The hair is soft, black, with reddish-grey tips and a delicate reddish under-fur.

Mr. Clark and Dr. Hector agree as to the general colour. The young are black when wet, when dry, lighter below; individual hairs pale yellow at base with light yellow tips, and a dense under-fur of the same tint. The older animals have hairs tipped with white. Round the mouth and ears are pale yellow. These Seals are fast disappearing or retiring to the Southern Antarctic Ocean. They possibly may be found in some of the smaller islands south of New Zealand, such as Auckland and Campbell Islands. On this point, however, information is required, but it has been shown at least that Hooker’s Sea Bear frequents these latter, and, as already observed, is known in a sub-fossil state in New Zealand.

LEFT FORE (A) AND HIND (B) FLIPPER OF NEW ZEALAND FUR SEAL. (After J. W. Clark.)

At the beginning of this century the sealing-trade of New South Wales was at its height, and vessels, manned by crews of from twenty-five to thirty men, pursued the craft. Mr. Scott, on the authority of Mr. Morris, an old Sydney sealer by profession, remarks that “to so great an extent was this indiscriminate killing carried, that in two years (1814–15) no less than 400,000 skins were obtained from Penantipod, or Antipodes Island, alone, and necessarily collected in so hasty a manner that very many of them were but imperfectly cured. The ship Pegasus took home 100,000 of these in bulk, and on her arrival in London, the skins, having heated during the voyage, had to be dug out of the hold, and were sold as manure—a sad and reckless waste of life.”

THE ASH-COLOURED OTARY.[218]—It is to be regretted that a memoir on the Eared Seals from the pen of the admirable Péron was lost to science by his lamented early demise. The French savant, when sojourning on the South Australian coast at Kangaroo Island, found a new species of the genus, which he named O. cinerea, this attaining a length of nine to ten feet. He stated that the hair of this animal is very short, hard, and coarse, but its leather is thick and strong, and the oil prepared from its fat is as good as it is abundant and he recommends pursuit of it and the other Seals with fur of good quality.

Most likely it is the same animal to which Flinders alludes when he says, speaking of Kangaroo Island, which abounded with Kangaroos and Seals: “They seem to dwell mainly together. It not unfrequently happened that the report of a gun fired at a Kangaroo near the beach brought out two or three bellowing Seals from under the bushes considerably farther from the water-side. The Seal, indeed, seems to be much the more discerning animal of the two; for its actions bespoke a knowledge of our not being Kangaroos, whereas the Kangaroo not unfrequently appeared to consider us to be Seals.”

It evidently is to Péron’s animal, or one otherwise not to be distinguished from it, that the naturalists of the Astrolabe, fully twenty year after, referred as the Phoque cendrée frequenting Port Western, Australia. This appears to be a distinct animal from others hitherto described, though so little is positively known that I shall merely draw attention to its colour. It is grey on the back, lighter on the muzzle, and rusty-grey on the lower parts of the body. It has sparse reddish under-fur, and Clark states of the somewhat dilapidated skin preserved in the Paris Museum that it has a length of between seven and eight feet.

CHAPTER III.
III.—THE EARLESS SEAL FAMILY (PHOCIDÆ).

General Characteristics—Peculiar Formation of the Hind Legs—Dentition—Swimming—[THE COMMON SEAL]—Range—Fight between a Seal and Salmon—Colour—Appearance—Annual Catch—Use of Skins in Greenland—Habits—[THE RINGED SEAL]—Appearance—Various Names—Odour—Flesh—Skin Clothes—Haunts—Modes of Capture—Range—[THE GREENLAND, OR SADDLEBACK SEAL]—Habits—Appearance—Names—Range—Migrations—“Seals’ Weddings”—Five Stages of Colour—Females—Weight—Seal Fisheries—Hunting—Implements of Slaughter—Various Operations—The Sealers—Oil, Skins, &c.—[THE BEARDED SEAL]—[THE GREY SEAL]—[THE MONK SEAL]—[THE CRESTED OR BLADDER-NOSE SEAL]—Range—Size—Ferocity—Character of the so-called Crest—Dentition—Colour—[THE ELEPHANT SEAL]—Peculiar Range—Proboscis—Scammon’s Account—Habits—Hunting—Hardships of the Hunters—Recreations of the Men—Blubber, Oil, and Skins—[ROSS’S LARGE-EYED SEAL]—[THE SEA LEOPARD]—[WEDDELL’S SEAL]—[THE CRAB-EATING SEAL]—Concluding Remarks—The Slaughter of Seals—Remedies.

HIND FLIPPERS OF RINGED SEAL. (Original after Murie.)
A, opened out; B, closed.

THOUGH the want of external ears is quite characteristic of this family, in contradistinction to the last, the fact of the Common Seals’ limb-construction being such as to prevent them from using their four feet on land is a point of special importance. In the general shape of the body and the appearance of the skin they resemble the Sea Lions more than the Walrus. The fore limbs of the Phocidæ are relatively and absolutely shorter than in the Otariidæ. They are so attached to the body as to leave little else free then the hand. The nails are generally longish and claw-like, and the thumb does not so greatly exceed the other fingers as it does in the Otaries. It is on the hind legs that the main distinction is based. While the thigh-bones are uncommonly short, the leg-bones are relatively long, and directed backwards in a line with the spine, and closely bound to the tail by membrane as far as the heel itself. This mechanical arrangement prevents the leg from being thrown forwards, and therefore it is of no use in land progression. The hind feet accordingly mostly rest in a line with the axis of the body, and when spread out form a kind of broad pair of oars; or the soles approximated give a long rudder or fish-tail-like termination. The tail itself is quite conspicuous behind the heels. The outer or great toe, and the inner or little toe, are almost of equal length, the preponderance being in favour of the former, while the three middle toes are smaller in size, and the nails of all are claw-like. The head in general is rounder than that of the Otaries, the eye is much larger and the whiskers somewhat less profuse. Their brain is more spherical. In several minor particulars the skull differs from that of the Otaries, and especially in the dentition is there a marked difference. Three types prevail, of which the Common Seal, the Sea Leopards, and the Crested, or Hooded Seals, are examples. In the first, the dental formula is—Incisors, 3–3 2–2; canines, 1–1 1–1; premolars, 4–4 4–4; molars, 1–1 1–1 = 34. The differences in number and shape in the two others we shall notice in the context. With respect to the skeleton generally, bone for bone, the distinctions rather lie in their relative lengths and dimensions than in special difference of construction. The hip-bones, the hind leg-bones, and those of the fore feet, appreciably differ and correspond to the peculiarities of progression, &c., in the two groups. On land, this family (Phocidæ) lies on the belly, throws the hind feet back, and by a series of short jerking movements, so-called saltatory efforts, or a curious kind of dragging motion, grovels abdominally on the ground, the short fore-paws either pressed against the body, or, on rocky rougher ground, otherwise slightly aiding action. This movement of the Common Seal doubtless most people have witnessed, and it is quite unique not only amongst the Carnivora, but the whole of the Mammalia. In swimming, the Seals seldom use their fore feet, while the Otaries use them as powerful sweeps. On the other hand, in the Seals the hind limbs have a kind of sculling movement, comparable to a fish’s tail, the sinuous strokes bearing some analogy to those of a screw-propeller. Less swift than the Otaries, they nevertheless move with extraordinary rapidity and power in the water.

TEETH OF COMMON SEAL.

SKELETON OF SEAL.

In the last family, the Eared Seals, it was pointed out that they had a peculiar geographical distribution, wherein certain forms had alone a northern habitat, and similarly others pertained to a southern. Almost identically, the Earless Seals have northern and southern representatives, but the Elephant Seal ranges both north and south; and the Monk Seal, which, though properly speaking belonging to the northern area, inhabits a strip running east to west within the Temperate zone, indeed nearly approaching the Torrid. It is also worth mention that Van Beneden, Leidy, and others have described quite a number of sub-fossil species, and Phocine genera; though the data for the latter are by no means complete, and probably future researches will considerably modify the conclusions arrived at by these authors. These Seal remains have all been obtained in the Temperate parallel, and regions where the sea no longer flows. In referring to the Earless Seals, as in the case of the Otaries, we shall somewhat follow their geographical distribution.

THE COMMON SEAL.[219]—This most familiar species of the group is as ludicrous in its gait on land as it is surpassingly elegant in its movements in water. Its range is widespread, namely, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, and seaboard facing the Atlantic from Spain to Spitzbergen, from Florida along the American coast to Greenland, also near Iceland and Jan Mayen. It likewise abounds on the Scandinavian coasts, and in the Baltic, the British islands being favoured with many visitors. Being a shy, timid, though inquisitive animal, it now frequents the wild, lonely shores of Scotland and Ireland; but in former times even the Isle of Wight and the Cornish coast were famous for the number of their Seals. Still they sometimes visit river-mouths. For example, in 1877, between seventy and eighty large and small Seals, and of different colours, were seen sunning themselves on the sands at low tide at Abertay. Some of these must have gone up the river towards, or even beyond, Dundee, for at West Ferry a desperate and protracted fight between a Seal and a huge Salmon was witnessed, not far from the shore, by several parties. The encounter lasted for more than an hour, the Seal dashing wildly about after its equally agile prey. The Salmon was occasionally tossed into the air, after the fashion of a Cat with a Mouse. Spite of the exertions of the noble fish, it could not escape its pursuer, and at length becoming fairly exhausted, succumbed. The victor frequently rose to the surface with its quivering prey in its mouth ere finally feasting on crimped Salmon.

The Common Seal is of a yellowish-grey colour, spotted above with black and brown, so as to give a mottled appearance, while below it is of a whitish or silvery grey. Ordinarily the hairs are shining and stiff, the colour being dependent somewhat on their being moist or dry; when the former, dark grey predominates. In length it varies from three to six feet, the head being about a tenth part. The roundish head has a short muzzle, prominent whiskers, and large expressive eyes. The skull is distinguished by peculiarities in the shape of the palate and cheek-bones, and by the oblique position of the molar teeth.

Although as valuable as certain other forms hunted by the sealers, its numbers in the Polar regions are comparatively smaller, so that it is not separately pursued by them, though the Greenlanders have a high appreciation of its worth. Dr. R. Brown says the flesh is looked upon as the most palatable of all “Seal-beef,” and he further remarks, “that no more acceptable present can be given to a Greenland damsel than a skin of the Kassigiak.” Dr. Rink estimates their annual catch in Danish Greenland between 1,000 and 2,000, and he says that the skin is highly valued for making clothes. It is found all the year round on these coasts, though it more frequently dwells near the river-mouths, and hence has been called the Fresh-water Seal. It bears a variety of names, both local and in different countries, and also according to age. In Greenland the young are produced in June. The cub is at first pure white, a few days later becoming darker, and changing as age proceeds. Though very quiet in disposition it can take its own part when attacked, as the reader of Scott’s “Antiquary” (Chapter xxx.) may remember, where Captain McIntyre’s adventure with the Phoca is narrated with Sir Walter’s usual graphic power. The same author’s lines—

“Rude Heiskar’s Seals through surges dark

Will long pursue the Minstrel’s bark,”

are in reality no poet’s licence, inasmuch as many instances are recorded of music—a flute, or even whistling, for example—bringing them to the surface. Their docility and intelligence are noted from the times of Pliny, and Professor Trail relates how one became a regular sociable kitchen pet. Of another, kept for six months in Shetland, the domesticity was quite marked. Called from a distance, even when in the sea, it would answer plaintively, swim ashore, and make its ungainly way over stones and grass to its lodge. This “Sealchie” amusing herself in the sea one day, a sudden snowstorm came on, during which some wild Seals approached and coaxed her off. A great number of interesting stories are related of the Common Seal, which Phoque lore, however, I need not stay to consider.

THE RINGED SEAL.[220]—This animal has considerable likeness to the last, excepting the fact that it is a very much smaller animal, seldom reaching more than three or four feet in length. It is blackish-grey above, the spotting being marked with oval whitish rings. Below, it is paler in colour, and its hair is softer and usually rougher than the Common Seal’s. Besides these external features, the formation of the cheek and palate bones, and the straight line of the molar, distinguish it from Ph. vitulina. In addition to the above name, it is also called Fœtid and Fjord Seal. It is the “Neitsik” of the Greenlanders; “Floe Rat” of the sealers; and is known as “bodack,” or “old man,” in the Hebrides. Other popular names are given it in different countries. The callous Eskimo are not insensible to the disgusting odour exhaled from the old males, and hence the name Fœtida. Dr. Rink says that when the large fellows captured in the interior ice-fjords are brought into a hut, and cut up on its floor, a smell is emitted resembling something between that of assafœtida and onions. The flesh of the young, notwithstanding, both he and Dr. R. Brown aver, is sufficiently palatable to an educated taste; and the latter even states that after a time he and his companions became “quite epicurean connoisseurs in all the qualities, titbits, and dishes of the well-beloved Neitsik. The skin,” he goes on to say, “forms the chief material of clothing in North Greenland. All of the οἱ πολλοί dress in Neitsik breeches and jumpers; and we sojourners from a far country soon encased ourselves in the somewhat hispid, but most comfortable, Neitsik nether garments. It is only high dignitaries like ‘Herr Inspektor’ that can afford such extravagance as a Kassigiak (Ph. vitulina) wardrobe! The Arctic pelles monopolise them all.” The young are of white, though slightly yellowish tint, and the hair is curly. A favourite haunt of the Floe Rat is the great ice-fjord of Jakobshavn. They resort to the ice-floes in retired bays, seldom frequenting the open sea. Dr. Rink calculates that 51,000 are annually captured in Danish Greenland. On an average, he reckons their weight at about 84 lbs. each. He says this Seal, which is also termed “Utok,” is almost exclusively that captured by means of ice-nets. Two nets are used across the track of the Seals near shore, in certain sounds between 63° and 66° N. lat. One is lowered to the bottom, and over this the animals pass; the other intercepts them, and the former is hauled up, and they are then caught in immense numbers between the two, running their heads into the net-meshes. This ruinous slaughter has in many instances driven the “Utok” Seals from their favourite inlets. The Seals form oblique passages through the ice-crust only large enough to allow their getting up and down; and in the sunny days of May are fond of basking on the ice-heaps close by. Towards this hole, usually termed “atluk,” equally adapted for rising to breathe or diving again, the Eskimo hunter cautiously approaches, or, covering his face with his Sealskin jacket, imitates the actions and manners of a Seal, and creeps towards his prey. In other cases, with a wooden frame, covered by white cotton, he pushes this shooting-sail slowly before him towards the animal. When sufficiently near, he despatches the creature with his gun, though it is necessary to inflict a severe wound in the skull or neck vertebræ, else the Seal quickly rolls down the hole and is lost. At other times, a couple of hunters will keep watch at the margin of an “atluk,” and, while one is on the outlook for the animal’s rising to breathe, the other plants his harpoon in the creature, the rope securing the victim. This method of hunting requires great patience, caution, and dexterity, for the acute sense of hearing keeps the animal always on the qui vive, and on perceiving the least mischievous stir it instantly escapes.

RINGED SEAL.

The geographical area of this species is round the southern coast of Greenland, Iceland, onwards to Spitzbergen, and high latitudes of the Arctic Ocean, towards Nova Zembla and the Russian coasts. It is also asserted that either this animal, or a closely-allied and barely-to-be-distinguished species is that which inhabits Lake Baikal, in North Central Asia, and Lake Ladoga, in Finland. On this head there is some discrepancy in the writings of authorities. M. Dybowski regards the Lake Baikal animal as distinct, and names it Phoca baicalensis. Nilsson again avers that the Seal of the Caspian Sea is a distinct species (Phoca caspica). On the other hand, Wallace and Van Beneden take a broader view, with which I am inclined to agree, that one, or more likely both, animals may be regarded as the Ringed Seal (Phoca hispida). It is very plausibly remarked that in former epochs of the world’s history, as is well known, geologists show that a large area of what is now called Russia in Asia was partially submerged, or, at least, the lakes in question were in more direct communication with the Arctic Ocean. The Seals hence, one might say, had their oceanic connection cut off, and thus, on that account slightly modified, remain as evidence of a once different physical condition of the areas concerned.

ESKIMO HUNTERS AT AN ATLUK, WAITING FOR A SEAL.

THE GREENLAND, OR SADDLE-BACK SEAL.[221]—It is this species that forms one of the chief objects of chase both in the Spitzbergen and Newfoundland seas. In habits it agrees with the ordinary Seals though said to be careless and stupid, and easily captured. It feeds on small fish, crustacea, and mollusca. The males and females differ in appearance, and the changes from the younger to older stages are also very remarkable. Indeed, one may say scarcely two animals are alike. These peculiarities have given rise to a great variety of names—White Coats, Harp Seal, Blue Sides, and other common appellations—besides “Atak” of the Greenlanders, and “Karoleek” and “Neitke” of the Eskimo, &c.

It has a wide geographical range, namely, along the North American coast to Davis Strait, round Greenland, the Scandinavian coasts, the Arctic Ocean eastward to Behring Strait, and even to Kamstchatka. According to Rink, though migratory, it may nevertheless be considered at home on the Greenland coast, on account of its haunting the shore and running over the sounds and fjords during the greater part of the year. There it appears regularly along the southern coast in September, travelling in herds from south to north between the islands. They are then fat, but their blubber still increases towards winter. In October and November they are most numerous; in December they decrease, become scarce in January, and almost disappear in February. In May they return from southwards, and get more northerly in June, when they are very lean. The herds again disappear in July, and return in September. Thus the Saddle-back deserts the Greenland coast twice a year. As to their whereabouts during their absence, information is defective. In spring, early in March, and till the beginning of April, it is found in immense numbers in the proximity of the dreary island of Jan Mayen, and in the Spitzbergen waters, in a belt of ice which the sealers term “South-east pack.” To these great broken ice-fields the Seals in vast numbers resort. At such times, as Dr. R. Brown observes, they may be seen, half a million and upwards, of both sexes, “literally covering the frozen waste as far as the eye can reach, with the aid of a telescope, from the crow’s nest.” At this season, the females give birth to their young—one, or occasionally two, in number. Then it is that the sealing-ships bear up towards the pack-ice; and, whenever opportunity permits, after the young are but a few days old, land and commence their slaughter. As the young increase in strength and take to the water the female parents gradually leave them, and join the males, which have already gone north. In July flocks of Seals, termed by Scoresby “Seals’ weddings,” have been seen at times in the parallels of 76° and 77° N. lat. Opinions are at variance respecting the migration from the west coast of Greenland towards Spitzbergen, and eastwards; and Rink, at least, holds that the Seals of Baffin’s Bay go in the spring down the west side of Davis Strait to Newfoundland and Labrador, where vast numbers are annually killed.

SADDLE-BACKS ON THE ICE.

At birth the Saddle-backs are pure woolly white, this gradually assuming a yellowish tint when they take to the water a few weeks old. They then begin to change to a dark speckled, and afterwards a spotted hue, and are called “Hares” by the sealers. Next they become dark-bluish on the back, while the breast and belly are of a sombre silvery hue. They are now “blue-backs.” Getting more spotted, the peculiar saddle-shaped band begins to form as they approach maturity. While in the fifth and last stage, the male acquires that well-developed half-moon-shaped mark on each side, the veritable saddle from which this Seal derives its vernacular name. An adult male is five or six feet long, the female seldom as much. The former is tawny-grey, or with a tinge of yellow or even reddish-brown in the spots, and marked by the saddle or lyre-shaped dorsal bands; hence also the cognomen of Harp Seal. The muzzle and head are dark. The adult female is dirty-white or tawny-bluish, or dark-grey on the back, with widely-distributed irregular spotting, but seldom or never shows the saddles.

Rink says a full-grown Saddle-back weighs about 250 lbs., the skin and blubber over, and the flesh under, 100 lbs. The winter blubber may amount to 80 lbs., but in summer little more than a quarter of that. In Danish Greenland alone about 35,000 are captured annually. Its skin forms the useful covering of the “kayaks,” or Eskimo canoes. The above number is, however, not a tithe of the enormous quantities of these creatures that are each year destroyed in the Greenland (i.e., Spitzbergen), and Newfoundland Seal-fisheries. Of this important branch of British commerce it does not behove us to enter into detail, however interesting or appropriate to the subject. Suffice it to say, now chiefly from Dundee, a fleet of ships and powerful steamers built for the trade, proceed, at the end of February and the beginning of March, with a stoppage at the Shetlands to ship hardy seamen, to the pack-ice in the Arctic Sea. Heavy, dark, and dreary weather often awaits the mariners as they coast along the fields of ice. Into the broken-up floes they now and again push their way, and as fortune wills it they may or may not discover from the mast-head a herd in the distance. Occasionally, even during the night, the noise of a family in these dismal regions will be heard, and the ship is soon made fast to the ice hard by, for the Seals during the breeding season frequent such areas of the ice as enable them to have easy access to the water. Then all becomes activity and excitement on board, every man having an interest and share in the expected plunder. The object is, if possible, to approach unperceived, surround, or get between the animals and the water, and, above all, to secure the young, which are more easily killed, and the more lawful prey. The sealers are provided with spiked clubs, sharp knives, seal-guns, and “ruer-ruddies,” or ropes attached by broad belts over their shoulders. Watching their chance the men land in bands, approach cautiously, and commence their dreadful operations. The old Seals abide and guard their young, even endangering their own safety, and will raise themselves up, face, and severely bite the unwary hunter. Crack, crack go the guns, as the older animals endeavour to escape through the holes or towards the water. All and sundry are attacked; a blow of the club, or kick of a heavy sea-boot, despatches the young, while the more aged receive rougher usage ere they succumb. The work of murder goes on apace without stoppage, for once disturbed, no second chance may be allowed the hunter. Told off in batches, some of the men commence the work of skinning, and quickly turn out hide and blubber, throwing aside the (to them) useless carcass, while the skins are heaped in piles. Some collect these, fasten bundles by the rope, and drag them towards the boats, where other sailors are ready to receive them. Thus the murderous operation goes on while there is Seal to be killed, or weather permits the men to remain on the floe, for sometimes the latter will break up, a gale arise, and the poor fellows run even other untold risks. As for the personal appearance of the sealers, as they labour at the work of slaughter, they look the most ruffianly set of men in existence. They are dressed in the queerest caps and coats of various shapes, with smuggler-looking breeches and long boots; moustaches and beards are covered with a mass of frozen tobacco-juice, hoar-frost, and Seal’s blood. Their matted hair, gory, greasy, unwashed faces and hands, reek and smell with a strong taint of butchery. In truth, a spectator, seeing the lot, might almost fancy himself back amongst some of the old bloodthirsty pirates of the Spanish Main. However, they work very hard for their hire. The hides are dropped pell-mell into the hold, and as soon as suiting time arrives, the blubber is sliced off, the skins roughly salted, and in this condition the material is retained for the few weeks until their voyage leads the “fishers” home again. Arrived at Dundee, the cargo is quickly landed, weighed, and the materials placed in the hands of the skinner. The fat is cut up by a variety of cutters driven by steam, and then steamed to facilitate the rendering of the oil. The greater part of the oil thus obtained is tasteless, inodorous, and pure as water. The remaining blubber, after the first oil is taken off, is placed in bags and pressed, and from these pressings most of the brown and inferior quality of oil is had. The former is by far the more valuable. Seal-oil has, of course, varied considerably in price during this century, in 1876–7 averaging £32 a ton, the inferior sort less in proportion. With regard to the skins, these, after being soaked, and the salt got rid of, pass through the usual tanning processes. Relative absence of under-fur gives value only to the leather. Roughly speaking, they fetch five to six shillings apiece.

THE BEARDED SEAL.[222]—About this animal there seems to be a certain amount of ambiguity, or want of agreement among naturalists, whether more than one species be not included under the Ph. barbata of Fabricius. This missionary refers to the “Ursuk,” the big, fat, or great Seal of the Greenlanders. The Russian naturalists Steller, Pallas, and Middendorf, speak of a Seal by different appellations, but most evidently this animal, as inhabiting the neighbourhood of Behring Strait and Kamstchatka. Schrenck and Temminck refer to it as being found, the former on the coast of Amoor land; the latter in Japan, where its skin is sold as an article of commerce. The Leporine Seal of Pennant may be regarded as still another synonym of the same creature. If such be the case, this great Bearded Seal has a geographical range from the west of Greenland to the Sea of Japan, an area somewhat corresponding to that of the Saddle-back, though less spread in the North Atlantic. Rink alludes to it as the “Thong Seal,” the Eskimo cutting the skin circularly into a long strip, which “allunak,” or hide rope, they use for harpoon lines. About 1,000 are captured annually on the Greenland coast. Dr. R. Brown regards it as the “Ground Seal” of the Spitzbergen sealers, and says that the blubber is most delicate in taste, and most highly prized as a culinary dainty. Unlike the other Seals, it has no “atluk,” but depends on broken places in the ice. It is generally found among loose ice and breaking-up floes. Its great size, occasionally ten feet long, and bulky body in proportion, is its important feature. It is of a tawny colour, darker above, and the young is supposed to be of a lighter hue.

THE GREY SEAL.[223]—Its range is a limited one compared with that of the last. It frequents the British coasts, especially Ireland and the Hebrides, and from the Scandinavian coast it stretches towards and round the southern shore of Greenland. It also is of enormous size. One old male, shot in 1869, at the Eagle Rock, Connemara, Mr. A. G. More states, weighed nearly 400 lbs., was eight feet long, and had a girth of body over five feet. Its colour is yellowish-grey, lighter beneath, with varied dark grey spots and blotches. Fabricius first described it, and the Swede Professor Nilsson ranked it as a separate genus, the distinguishing characters depending on the form of its skull and molar teeth, small brain-case, and large nasal orifice, the muzzle being deep and obliquely truncated. To Mr. Ball, of Dublin, we are indebted for a tolerably good account of its habits and other particulars, he having shown it to be the same as Donovan’s Orkney Seal, the so-called Ph. barbata. In bringing the matter before the British Association in 1836, Professor Nilsson recognised it as his H. griseus, the same animal described by Fabricius in 1790. On the British coasts it breeds in October and November, though Nilsson asserts that on the Swedish coasts it breeds in February, a contradiction hitherto not clearly explained. A male and female from Wales were exhibited in the Zoological Gardens in 1871, and Mr. Bartlett particularly noted that it was both greedy and savage as compared with the other Seals under his charge. This accords with Mr. Ball’s account, who found it insusceptible of domestication; this he attributed to its small brain relatively to the other Seals. At the mouth of a cave at Howth he was fortunate in harpooning one. Some state that they are solitary in their habits, others that they associate in pairs, and still others that they congregate in groups of ten or a dozen. At all events, they select such remote and unfrequented situations that it is no very easy matter to follow them. They are not so lively, watchful, or timid as the Common Seal. Those of the county Galway are said to utter most dismal howls in chorus. Their young they leave on the exposed barren rocks, and suckle them every tide for the space of a fortnight. When born, they are of a dull yellowish-white, in a few weeks becoming darker, and by degrees gaining their greyish coat. Under the name of Black Seal, probably this species, an animal (besides the Common Seal) occasionally frequents the Bay of St. Andrews and the Tay mouth, where it is very destructive to fish and nets.

THE MONK SEAL.[224]—Who has not heard or seen something of the “wonderful learned talking fish,” if only from placard or fanciful sketch hung outside the showman’s caravan, with the occasional attractive announcement that “the amphibious creature has the sense of hearing in its nostrils, and fins bearing the impression of five fingers?” A visit soon dispels the illusion, as the imploring look of a hungry but bright-eyed Seal in a tub of water greets the sight. These “talking fish” generally belong to this species, and have often been exhibited in Britain and on the Continent. A full-grown animal reaches between seven and eight feet long, and upwards. It is dark-brown mixed with grey above, and whitish below, and has short hair and small claws. It entirely differs from all the preceding in being confined to the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and the African coasts neighbouring Madeira and the Canaries. Buffon’s classic description of the White-bellied Seal refers to this species, and Pennant names it the Pied Seal. Its geographical limits are as above stated, unless it be the same as a Seal from Jamaica, which Gray terms M. tropicalis, in which case it would traverse the Atlantic, a fact that is more than doubtful. Their mild disposition and teachable nature have led to their frequent exhibition. They go through many tricks, utter sounds construed into speech, present the fore-paw to “shake hands,” kiss the visitor when desired, obey other trifling commands, and allow themselves to be freely handled. Little is known as to its times of breeding and rearing of young, though its habits in a state of nature are believed to be very similar to those of the Seal tribe generally.

CRESTED SEAL.

THE CRESTED, OR BLADDER-NOSE SEAL.[225]—The geographical range of this animal agrees best with that of the Common Seal, that is, it sweeps along the North American coast from Florida right up into Baffin’s Bay, thence to the south coasts of Greenland, across the North Atlantic, skirting Britain and Scandinavia, to Spitzbergen. Named from the remarkable prominence of the front upper-part of the head, this is one of the largest and most powerful of the Northern Seals. Certainly it is the fiercest and most dangerous, as the Eskimo know to their cost in attacking it from their kayaks. It does not hesitate to return an assault, and the crest, it is said, affords some protection from wounds inflicted by the club. These brutes fight ferociously among themselves, and the roaring during such ice-battles, in the still Arctic regions, is said to be audible four miles off. The so-called crest, hood, or bladder, is in reality nothing of the sort, but only a peculiar enlargement of the nasal passages, more particularly developed in the old animals of both sexes. The configuration of the head of this creature is hemispherical, and proportionally broad and short. The bony parts of the snout, and the cartilaginous septum of the nose and nostrils generally, are so formed as to allow great dilatation of these parts. That is to say, the two passages of the nostrils are, in the full-grown animal, exceedingly capacious fleshy tunnels. From youth onwards, this region acquires prominence, and, partly through habit and growth of the structures in later life, the animal when roused inflates, by compression of the muscles of upper-lip and nose, the cavities in question, so much so as to produce the expansion on the forehead which has given rise to its specific soubriquet. All engravings, even our own, represent this structure as reaching farther back on the head than the absolute anatomical conformation of the parts warrants, but in the live animal the skin of the head rearwards to some extent swells in unison with the puffed nostril, and hence to a certain degree simulates a hood or crest. Some sealers regard the so-called bladder as an air reservoir for buoyancy, an idea totally at variance with its true nature. The teeth of this genus are peculiar, the incisors being fewer in number. The formula is—Incisors, 2–2 1–1; canines, 1–1 1–1; premolars, 4–4 4–4; molars, 1–1 1–1 = 30. From eight to twelve feet in length has been given as the limits of size it obtains. The young are pure white; when a year old they become greyish, and the hue deepens, becoming deep chestnut and black above, though the lighter shade is retained on the under parts; chiefly on the back are black spots and rings of white. The muzzle is hairy, and the hair on the rest of the body long, with thick soft under-wool. It visits Greenland in May and June, leaves in July, and again returns in August and September. Fabricius states that they are polygamous. This animal is one which the sealers hunt, it frequenting the outside of the ice-packs. Rink estimates the average annual catch in Greenland at 3,000. An individual will yield 120 lbs. of blubber, and as much as 200 lbs. of flesh.

THE ELEPHANT SEAL.[226]—This creature, like the last, has a peculiar geographical range, but is unique, inasmuch as it is found north and south of the equator. It should, however, be stated that Dr. Gill has designated the northern form by a separate name (Macrorhinus angustirostris), though the distinctive characters have as yet not been substantiated by other naturalists. Meantime, we may be justified in regarding them as one form. It existed formerly in numbers on the Californian coast. But it is best known as frequenting, during the beginning of this century, such islands as Juan Fernandez, the Falklands, New Georgia, South Shetlands, Tristan d’Acunha, Kerguelen’s Land, and, indeed, several of the islands scattered in the Antarctic Ocean. In the young and females, the characteristic feature, or so-called proboscis, is deficient, but in the old males it extends quite a foot beyond the angle of the mouth, and hence the name of Elephant Seal. The females are nine or ten feet, the males fourteen, sixteen, and even twenty feet in length. The colour varies with age from brown to leaden-grey. It seems that they bring forth their young at different seasons in the southern and northern latitudes, in the latter about May or June, in the former somewhat earlier. Accounts differ as to its food, some saying cuttle-fish and seaweed are its principal nutriment.

TEETH OF THE CRESTED SEAL.

Lord Anson, Captain Cook, and M. Péron, each give accounts respecting its extraordinary abundance in southern regions, but their numbers have since been decimated. Captain Scammon describes them as crawling out of the surf towards the ravines half a mile distant from the water, where they congregated in hundreds. Unless when excited, their movement on land is slower than that of the ordinary Seals, but they ascend broken elevated ground fifty or sixty feet above the sea. He says that when sailors are destitute of tobacco-pipes, they hollow its short canine teeth into bowls and use the quills of the Pelican for shanks. Their hunting in Desolation and Herd’s Islands is a most exposed and solitary pursuit. The ship is manned with a double crew, and some of the men are landed on the dangerous, ever-stormy coasts of these islands. Food and necessaries are provided, and rude shanties erected of rough boards, tarred canvas, and pieces of lava-rock. In this dank habitation, planted between an iceberg on the one side and a bluff volcanic mountain on the other, they are left to hunt as best they can, in a climate windy, rainy, cold, and often snowy. Nevertheless, undergoing hardships and privations of no common kind, excitement and prospect of gain compensate for their fatigues and temporary banishment. By the flickerings of a murky oil lamp, and fat and coal diffusing heat, these reckless adventurers pass the long, dreary, cold, evenings in card-playing and boisterous fun. Sea Elephants’ tongues and water-fowl are gladly intermingled with coarser fare. The men divide themselves into groups, and scour the coast in all directions, killing such numbers as fall in their way. They either transport the blubber and skins to their stores, or bury it for a time until opportunity of its removal is afforded. Afterwards it is placed in casks, and these are rolled by the gangs to the beach, when their vessel arrives. The casks are then launched into the surf, pulled through the rollers by the boats to the ship, where they are duly stowed. In the Californian district, the skin of the animal is ripped up along the back and reflected; the blubber is cut into “horse pieces,” about a foot square, and a hole made through which a rope is passed. The pieces are again strung on a raft-rope, a line is made fast to this, when they are dragged through the breakers to the small boat, and towed to the vessel. On board, large pots set in a brick furnace are ready prepared, where the blubber is rendered, the oil extracted being very superior for lubricating purposes. In these voyages the crews, unlike the Dundee fishers, hunt both Seals and Whales at the same time, the Americans having quite a monopoly of this special trade.

ELEPHANT SEAL.

ROSS’S LARGE-EYED SEAL.[227]—In the voyage of the Erebus and Terror to the Antarctic regions, 1839–43, there was obtained a Seal named after the commander of the Expedition. Little or nothing is recorded of its special habitat and habits, the main peculiarities resting in its skeleton. The stuffed skin, now in the British Museum, is of a greenish-yellow colour, with close, oblique, yellow stripes on the side, pale beneath, and the fur is close-set and rigid. The skull is broad, with great orbits. This genus has six molar teeth on each side of the upper and five on each side of the lower jaw. The canines are of very moderate dimensions, and the teeth, as a whole, are relatively small. Its specific name is derived from its great eyes.

THE SEA LEOPARD.[228]—Under the names Sea Leopard and Leopard Seal, indiscriminately used by the sailors or Southern sealers, two animals, apparently distinct, have evidently been confounded by them as well as by naturalists. Indeed, another seemingly totally different animal of the North Pacific has also been named Leopard Seal by Scammon. That to which the title Sea Leopard appears most applicable is what De Blainville and others called the Small-nailed Seal (Phoca leptonyx), and F. Cuvier the Narrow-muzzled Seal (Stenorhynchus leptonyx). Its precise distribution is uncertain, but it has been found on the coasts of Australia, New Zealand, Falkland, Campbell, Auckland, and Lord Howe’s Islands, and the Antarctic Ocean (on pack-ice). It may possibly be met with elsewhere, but the foregoing are authenticated localities. Mr. A. W. Scott describes male and female stuffed specimens in the Sydney Museum. The old male measures twelve feet in length; the glossy spotted skin is of a light silvery grey, with pale yellowish-white in patches, brought into relief by black-grey shading; its back and sides are darker, and belly lighter. The younger but adult female is seven feet long. Her colour above is darkish-grey, almost black in the middle line, intermixed by narrow markings of darker hue, and of yellowish-white, and the under parts without spots and also yellowish-white. A specimen kept alive for several days at Port Jackson had a long muzzle, a long thin neck, and in its habits generally it resembled the Seal tribe. Dr. George Bennett killed a male in Shoalhaven River (August, 1859), several miles above salt-water reach, which had a water-mole in its stomach. Dr. Knox states that those he examined in New Zealand contained in their stomachs fish-bones, gulls’ feathers, and seaweeds. Captain Musgrave, in his forced residence on the Aucklands, already referred to, alludes to this animal as the Black Seal, and describes a fight between one and a Sea Lion (Otaria); the flesh, he says, is rank. So far as his observations go, they remain at these islands pretty nearly all the year round, but others think that they occasionally migrate, or, at least, at certain seasons less frequently approach the land. The skull is remarkably elongated; the double-rooted molar teeth are compressed and serrate, or have a three-lobed crown, the middle being the longest. This animal has but four incisors above and four below, and the canines are of moderate dimensions. The nails on the hind feet are almost absent.

SEA LEOPARD SEALS.

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LARGER IMAGE]

TEETH OF THE SEA LEOPARD.

WEDDELL’S SEAL.[229]—A couple of stuffed specimens and a few skulls of this Seal in the British Museum, and a stuffed specimen in Edinburgh, are the sole material on which this species is founded. Dr. R. Hamilton, in the “Naturalist’s Library,” described the latter as the Leopard Seal (Phoca leopardina, Jameson). Captain Weddell had brought it from the Southern Orkneys, and, according to him, during life the animal is pale greyish above, yellowish beneath, and the back spotted with pale white. Dr. Gray mentions the London male specimen as fulvous, with a blackish-grey line down the back, the female and young corresponding to Captain Weddell’s description. The distinction between this and the last species is barely appreciable from their external coat, such differences as exist being in the skull. Weddell’s Seal, or, as Gray names it, the False Sea Leopard (Leptonyx Weddellii), has a relatively shorter and broader skull, fuller in the brain-pan, largish orbits, and a weak lower jaw. The molars are not tri-cusped; the front one in each jaw is single-rooted, and the rest double-rooted. The Antarctic Expedition brought home skulls, and skins and skulls were afterwards obtained by Captain Fitzroy, R.N., from the River Santa Cruz, Patagonia. Neither they nor Weddell give us any information respecting the life-habits of this animal. It will thus be seen that its geographical area, and especially its geographical relations towards the previous species, are at present uncertain. On account of the peculiarities of cranium and dentition, Gray forms it into a separate genus.

THE CRAB-EATING SEAL, OR SAW-TOOTH STERRINCK OF OWEN.[230]—The interest in this creature lies probably not so much in the nature of its food as in the greater saw-like character of its molars, which strongly resemble those of the fossil Zeuglodon, an animal of the Whale tribe. The Crab-eating Seal inhabits an undefined area of the Antarctic Seas. Above it is of a nearly uniform olive colour, below and the sides of the face yellowish-white, and there are a few often confluent spots of a light colour on the flanks. The five-toed fore feet, whose wrist is said to be very short, are clawed, but the hind ones are clawless. In number, the teeth agree with the Sea Leopard’s; though the first, second, and third front upper and the first front lower molars are single-rooted, the rest double-rooted. Moreover, nearly all the molar teeth have two or three cusps behind the middle strong conical lobe, while in front there is usually only a single small conical elevation. Thus the hinder border of these molars is considerably more saw-like than in the Sea Leopard. It differs also from the latter both in the lower jaw and upper parts of the cranium, but more particularly in the nasal and facial regions. Little is known with regard to its life-history.

The last three Seals some have considered under three distinct generic names, for reasons already given. If importance be attached to the dentition, this separation is allowable; but on the other hand there are considerable resemblances which others regard as only of specific weight. The generic term Stenorhynchus, first used by F. Cuvier in 1824 for the so-called Sea Leopard, and which has been at times indiscriminately applied by different naturalists to all three animals with multi-serrate crowned teeth, but here partially restricted to the first two, is a name well known and still applicable to one or other. Nevertheless, Lamarck, in 1819, had designated a genus of Crabs Stenorhynchus, universally accepted, and also in current use up to the present time. Some confusion having thus occasionally resulted, Professor Peters drew attention to the awkwardness of the circumstance, and proposed that the term Ogmorhinus should replace Stenorhynchus, as applied to the Seals; Lamarck’s name having priority being retained for the Crabs. This well exemplifies one among the many difficulties and cross-purposes incident to nomenclature, &c., of Natural History, where, in the vast array of names and facts presented, glaring discrepancies will arise, despite the constant revision of those devoted to its study.

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Before closing this chapter, there is one subject which I believe deserves mention, however briefly. The enormous slaughter of the Seal tribe is a matter of serious consideration, if only in a mercantile spirit. Among the sealers, neither sex nor age is spared, and therefore at the present wholesale rate of destruction it is easy to foresee early comparative, if not absolute, extinction of the tribe. Nothing can be clearer than the fact that since the Americans in their Alaska territory have adopted the plan of killing a prescribed number annually of the young and male Seals only, in other words, of protecting the breeding females, the Fur Seals have shown no tendency to diminution, but rather an apparent increase. Nature has her limits, and the Seals have other enemies to contend with besides man. Yet the latter, taking advantage of the maternal affections, and with the aid of deadly firearms and the like, in a certain space of time commits more fatal havoc among them than all their other foes combined. Several persons have urged a close-time. The fact is there are great difficulties in the way of this, for even in well-protected British rivers and fisheries generally, Salmon and others of the finny tribe are caught at forbidden times, in spite of Acts of Parliament and other regulations. Who is to watch the sealers in far-off inhospitable climes? Certainly in the Northern sealing-grounds the departure of the ships could be made somewhat later, as has, indeed, to some extent been done, but of course at the risk of a diminished catch. In the long run beneficial results doubtless will follow. But the plan most applicable to both Northern and Southern Seal-capture would be the insistence of the simple rule of sparing the breeding females whenever possible. If our merchants at home would take the matter in hand, and, but for a few years, refuse to receive female skins, the sealers would be practically forced, and in fact find it to their benefit, to look to their interests from a more humane point of view.

JAMES MURIE.