THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 229 



covers a number of cells ordinarily empty, becomes 

 enlarged and lengthened bv the blood that the ani- 

 mal has the power of forcing into the cells. This 

 projection is now a foot in length; but it appears 

 to be nothing more than a mere appendage, some- 

 what resembling, in more respects than one, the 

 fleshy wattle on the head of the turkey, which can 

 be similarly inflated. In the spring — that is, in these 

 latitudes, the months of August and September —  

 the Elephant Seals betake • themselves to the rocky 

 shores in large herds: at this time they are exceed- 

 ingly fat, and a single male will sometimes yield a 

 butt of oil. They remain on shore until the middle 

 of summer, when the young, which have been born 

 in the mean time, are fit to take the water and pro- 

 vide for themselves. As the old ones have taken no 

 food during the whole of this period, they are become 

 very lean and weak, but soon recruit their powers. 

 Though furnished with large and powerful tusks, 

 and endowed with sufficient strength to use them, 

 the Sea-Elephant is a most mild and inoffensive 

 creature, suffering the seamen not only to walk 

 among them uninjured, but even to bathe in the 

 midst of the herd when swimming, with perfect im- 

 punity. In self-defence, however, or in defence of 

 their young, their resistance becomes formidable. 

 One of Anson's men, having killed a young one, had 

 the cruelty and rashness to skin it in the presence of 

 its mother: but she, coming behind him, got the 

 sailor's head into her mouth, and so scored and 

 notched his skull with her sharp teeth, that he died 



in a day or two afterwards. 



u 



