KERGUELEN S LAND. 



201 



disturbed. The males just raised their heads and then went to 

 sleep again ; the females took no notice. 



I went up close to the older male and excited him in the 

 hopes of seeing him raise his trunk-like snout, and he was 

 roused again later on, but this had not the effect of making him 

 move from his ground or frightening him at all ; but on one of 

 the ship's cutters, for which I had sent a petition to the ship, 

 coming into the bay full of men in order to kill specimens of 

 the Elephants and take them on board, the Elephants became 

 immediately alarmed as if accustomed only to expect danger 

 from boat parties. 



I had forgotten that the Tristan da Cunha people had told 

 me that they always shot the male Sea-Elephant and lanced the 

 cows, and I thought the beast could be stunned by blows 

 on the snout like Fur-Seals, so Lieutenant Channer, who had 

 been out shooting with me, went up to the big male and began 

 hammering him on the snout with a stick heavily loaded with 

 lead, but without any effect beyond enraging the beast to the 

 utmost. The animal was not stunned by the blows, because 

 the skull of the Sea-Elephant is protected above by a high inter- 

 muscular ridge or crest, and the bones around the nostrils are very 

 strong. In these point s 

 the Elephant is very 

 different from the Fur- 

 Seal. The beast raised 

 itself on its fore-flippers 

 and at the same time 

 twisted up its tail into 

 the air, just as represented 

 in "Anson's Voyages," 

 where the Sea-Elephant 

 was figured for the first 

 time as the Sea-Lion of 

 Juan Fernandez. 



The beast raised its head and opened its huge mouth to the 

 widest, showing formidable teeth and a capacious pinkish gullet, 

 from which proceeded loud and angry roars. 



The animal was too young to have a largely developed 



OLD MALE SEA-ELEPHANT OF JUAN FERNANDEZ. 



(Copied from Anson's Voyages.) 



