150 THE PROBOSCIS-SEAL, OR SEA-ELEPHANT. 



the island Decrds I only found a single tooth of the proboscis- 

 seal. Lastly, this amphibious creature does not exist on the 

 continent of New Holland, nor on the shores of VanDiemen's 

 Land ; and the species is only known to the inhabitants of 

 these countries by an individual being occasionally carried 

 thither by a storm or current. 



" Numerous herds of these seals inhabit the land of Kergue- 

 len, the Island of Georgia, and the land of the States, where 

 the English habitually maintain their fishery of these animals. 

 They exist in great numbers on the Island of Juan Fernandez. 

 It is probable that the small fresh- water lakes in which these 

 seals delight to bathe, may induce their preference for par- 

 ticular spots 5 but from all the observations that have hitherto 

 been made, these powerful animals are confined between the 

 35th and 55th degrees of south latitude, inhabiting the Atlan- 

 tic and the great Southern Ocean. 



" Besides choosing some islands by preference, these seals 

 also change their residence at particular seasons j they are in 

 fact migratory animals. Equally obnoxious to extreme heat 

 as to severe cold, they advance with the winter season from 

 the south to the north, and return with summer in the con- 

 trary direction. It is in the middle of June that they perform 

 their first migration, covering, in countless multitudes, the 

 shores of King's Island, which sometimes, the English sailors 

 say, are blackened by them. The same migratory movements 

 have been remarked by Rogers and Steller in other species of 

 seals, which they have compared, in that respect, to swans, 

 wild geese, &c. 



(e A month after their arrival, the females bring forth; at this 

 period they are surrounded by the males, which prevent their 

 return to the sea, and even compel them to remain on shore, 

 until the period of suckling their young is ended. Nay, it is 

 asserted that when the mothers, wearied of this confinement, 

 endeavour to drive away their offspring, the males bite the 

 young ones and compel them to return. The female has but 

 one young, which measures, when born, from four to five feet 

 in length, and weighs about seventy pounds ; the males are 

 already larger than the females. 



" The mother turns on her side to give suck to the young. 

 Lactation lasts seven or eight weeks, during which period the 

 females, guarded as above mentioned, neither eat nor come 

 down to the sea. This strange abstinence did not escape the 

 observation of the unfortunate Alexander Selkirk, who in- 

 formed Captain Rogers, that towards the end of the month 

 of June these animals visited his solitary abode, bringing 

 forth their young about a musket- shot from the sea, and stay- 



