GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 721 



the mystacial bristles, and in the palms being bare, in which 

 characters it differs from any of the Stenorhynchinw. It ap- 

 pears to differ from Monachus in no essential character, except 

 in the structure of the teeth, which seem to agree better with 

 those of Lobodon. Mr. Hill describes the molars as "five- 

 lobed and conical," and as " terminating in a base of extremely 

 rough enamel." In Monachus the molars are very thick, broad, 

 and conical, with a small accessory cusp before and behind 

 the principal one, and a roughened cinguluni. As in all other 

 characters the agreement is closer with Monaclius than with 

 any of the Antarctic genera, I accept provisionally Gray's refer- 

 ence of the species to Monachus, especially as Mr. Hill's descrip- 

 tion of the dentition is, on the whole, rather vague. Besides 

 this, Monachus is the only subtropical genus of the family, unless 

 the Jamaican Seal prove to be a distinct generic type. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. Eespecting the present geo- 

 graphical distribution of the West Indian Seal, I am indebted for 

 valuable information to Mr. R. W. Kemp, who, under date of 

 "Key West, Fla., April 29, 1878," wrote me as follows : "Some 

 two or three years ago there were two seen near Cape Florida. 

 It was supposed that they had strayed from some of the Bahama 

 Islands, as there are some few to be found in that vicinity. I 

 am informed by reliable parties that Seals are to be found in 

 great numbers at the Anina Islands, situated between the Isle 

 of Pines and Yucatan. One of my informants says that as he 

 was sailing about the islands fishing and wrecking, he and his 

 party discovered a number of Seals on one of them, and went 

 on shore to kill some, merely ' for fun '. On uearing the shore 

 the Seals all got into the water. They then hid themselves in 

 the shrubbery along the beach, and in about ten or fifteen min- 

 utes the Seals came on the beach again. The men, armed with 

 axes, sprang upon them, the Seals trying to get into the water 

 again. Two of them were killed, and another one, as one of 

 the men came up to him, turned around and barked furiously 

 at him, which frightened the poor man so badly (he having 

 never seen one before, and knowing nothing of their habits) 

 that he almost fainted. The Seals are said to be very easily 

 killed or captured alive. They yield a great deal of oil. The 

 skins are very large, but not easy to cure, on account of their 

 fatty substance." In a later letter he refers to their great rar- 

 Misc. Pub. No. 12 46 



