WEDDELL'S SEAL. 11 



No. 82, 9 , skiill, with worn canines and incisors. McMurdo Sonnd. 

 No.- 84, (J, very young skull. McMurdo Sound. 

 No. 85, 9 , skull. McMurdo Sound. 



No. 86, 9 , juv. skin and skull. Moulting woolly coat, three weeks old. {Mounted for B.M. 

 Gallery hj Rowland Ward.) Dec. 23, 1903. McMurdo Sound. 



Collection of Embryos. 



Twelve embryos from the earliest stages were preserved in spirit by Mr. T. V. Hodgson. 

 Two foetal seals at full term were also preserved in spirit. 



This collection has been submitted to Dr. Marrett Tims, of Cambridge, for examination, and will be 

 separately reported. 



Material in the ' Morning's ' Collection. 



No. 16, M. 4. (J, ad. skin. South Victoria Land. 



No. 23, M. 47. $ , ad. skin and skull. Moulting. South Victoria Land. 



No. 24, M. 48. 9 , vix ad. skin and skull. Feb. 1903. McMurdo Sound. 



No. 25, M. 44. $ , vix ad. skin and skull. McMurdo Sound. 



Here aud there, scattered far and wide during the summer months in McMurdo Sound, 

 we saw parties of Weddell's Seals lying on the floe. Sometimes one or two only, some- 

 times ten, twenty, thirty, forty or more lying together, not huddled close to one 

 another, but in scattered parties. The whole frozen strait, from the open water at the 

 mouth to the blind end where the ice of a season or two meets the barrier ice of an 

 unknown number of sea.sons, the whole of this vast ice sheet is, in fact, one big 

 scattered rookery of Weddell's Seals (see fig. 10, p. 14). 



On approaching one of the largest collections lying on the floe, it could be seen that, 

 though almost all were sleeping, there was a good deal of lazy restlessness in their 

 slumber. They were not by any means motionless. One or two would be up and 

 moving, loping along in one direction or another for no very apparent reason. Another 

 would be seen coming out of its hole in the ice, clumsily hitching its shapeless bulk 

 up by degrees, wet and shiny, till at last it emerged on to the floe, where it 

 immediately began a rough dry by rolling over and over on the snowy surface. Then 

 it would lope along a little further and settle off to sleep. 



We might then walk up to one of the sleepers, and if we approached him up 

 wind no notice would be taken. The eyes are fast closed, and the head is di-awu in, 

 wrinkling up the blubber-lined skin in folds around the neck. The breathing goes on 

 as before, a sudden half opening of the nostrils (sometimes in sleep only one is used), a 

 snorting expiration followed at once by a wide opening of the nostrils and a I'ather less 

 prolonged and noisy inspiration, then the nostrils snap to and remain closed while one 

 can slowly count to twelve or fifteen seconds. No notice whatever is taken of our 

 presence, though we may be only a foot or two from the sleeping Weddell's nose. His 

 eyes remain tight shut, and now he stretches himself and contracts his hind flippers into 

 the most grotesque attitudes ; his back itches, and his hand goes round in the most 

 human fashion to scratch it with the long protruding nail of the second finger. Now 

 his hand itches, and with the other he scratches that. Then he yawns, and gurgles 

 in his throat, still always with his eyes tight shut, aud he may settle ofi" to sleep 



