202 



A NATURALIST OX THE " CHALLENGER. 



trunk. There was merely an arched projection thrown up for 

 some little distance above the nostrils, partly by inflation, partly 

 by strong contraction of muscles on each side of the nose. If 

 the beast had got hold of Channer he would have bitten a limb 

 to pieces at one crunch. The head of the stick came off, and 

 so I ran up and put a bullet into the animal's heart. 



This male Sea-Elephant when enraged had its snout much in 

 the condition as that shown in Leseur's plate * in that one of 



SEA-ELEPHANTS. 



(Copied from Leseur's Plate.) 



the animals of the group represented, which is just going to land 

 from the sea on the left-hand side of the landscape. The old 

 male elephants were described by the sealers of Heard Island as 

 having a trunk 10 inches in length. These old males were called 

 " Beach-masters/' Anson's sailors called the largest male at 

 Juan Fernandez the " Bashaw." 



I obtained from a harponeer on board one of the whaling- 

 schooners which we fell in with at Kerguelen's Land, a very well 

 executed carving in a soft volcanic stone from Heard Island, 

 which represented two men skinning a dead Beach-master. Un- 

 fortunately, this was lost with other curiosities in transit from 

 the ship, after we reached home. In this, the trunk of the old 

 male Elephant was shown hanging like a short flaccid tube from 

 the snout. It is shown somewhat thus in Leseur's figure, drawn 

 for Peron, in the case of the animal represented as lying on 

 beach in the foreground ; but the trunk there is probably shown 



* "Voyage de Decouvertes aux terres Australes." Peron et Leseur. 

 Paris, 1807. ° Atlas PL XXXII. 



