176 Merriam A New Fur-seal from Guadalupe Island. 



saw seven fur-seals and shot one, which sank before it could be 

 recovered. The trip was made too early in the season to find 

 the seals on shore. A locality was visited where it was known 

 that a large number had been killed a few years previously, and 

 here four skulls were obtained. These skulls were immediately 

 sent to Washington and on their arrival were examined by Dr. 

 J. A. Allen, Dr. Theodore Gill and myself, and proved, as had 

 been suspected, to belong to the genus Arctocephalus. A joint 

 note to this effect was published by us in the Fur-Seal Arbitra 

 tion, Appendix to the Case of the United States, vol. I, p. 586, 1892. 

 In the same volume (p. 373) Dr. Allen expresses the belief that 

 the skulls in question represent an undescribed species. The 

 northernmost locality from which the genus had been previously 

 recorded is the Galapagos Islands under the equator, about 2500 

 miles southeast of Guadalupe. 



In his manuscript report on the Guadalupe trip Mr. Townsend 

 states : " Guadalupe Island is thoroughly volcanic and there are 

 caves by the dozen along every mile of the shoreline which were 

 once the retreats of thousands of fur-seals. On the afternoon of 

 May 17 we saw four seals swimming some distance off shore. 

 Two of these we believed to be fur-seals, but could not get within 

 shooting distance, although we tried for an hour. The other 

 two, seen later, were undoubtedly Zalophus. No seals whatever 

 were found on the rocks. ... On May 22 we examined 

 SW Point and the three islands or rocks south of it. On the 

 most southerly rock we found a band of Zalophus, about thirty 

 in number, hauled out. There were no fur seals among them. 

 Passing the point, we continued, pulling in the dory, the schooner 

 lying to off shore, up the west side of the island about eight 

 miles, where we anchored. In the evening we visited the spot 

 where Borges and Sisson had killed two or three hundred fur- 

 seals about ten years before. Only a few weather-worn skulls 

 were found, which we gathered for shipment to Washington. 

 The next day, May 23, we hunted along shore, in the boat as 

 usual, as far as the next point south of NW Point about six 

 miles, the schooner keeping well off shore. At 10 AM., near the 

 outlying rocks off this point, we found what seemed to be a male 

 fur-seal, perhaps about four years old, asleep on the water with 

 his fins held aloft in the manner so characteristic of these ani 

 mals. I got a pretty fair shot with the rifle but missed. Half 

 an hour later I shot a female fur-seal, killing it instantly. Be 

 fore we could get the hook on it, it sank below our reach, although 



