WEDDELL'S SEAL. 15 



certainly not to anything approaching what might be called a .seasonal migration. 

 Weddell's Seal is therefore not a migrant, and that it is less abundant in the winter 

 months than in the summer is rather the result of a change in its habits, than of any 

 radical change in its local distribution. 



This is an interesting point in the history of Weddell's Seal, for it marks it 

 oif as the species which has adapted itself more perfectly to Antai'ctic conditions 

 than any of the other Southern forms, and it has a bearing also on its comparative 

 immunity from the attacks of Killer Whales, as will presently be shown. 



The Killer Whales throughout the year remain quite as far South as the periodical 

 break up of the sea ice will allow. They are to be seen the last thing in the autumnal 

 twilight (March 7th and 9th in 1902) and the first thing in the spring (September 14th 

 in 1902) hunting in herds along the edges of the fast ice, as the Hoes break off and 

 drift away. 



If, then, Weddell's Seal lived actually at the limiting edges of the fast ice, and 

 was wholly dependent upon the proximity of open water, it would be no more immune 

 from the attacks of the Killer Whale than are the Crab-eater (Lobodon) and Eoss' 

 ( Ommatophoca) Seals, but it is not so dependent upon open water, for it retires as this 

 advances in the summer months, betaking itself to the fast ice which is still unbroken 

 in the sheltered bights and bays along the coast-line. 



If, on the other hand, it wanders from the actual shores and sheltered bay ice of 

 the coast, it is not to tempt fate in the pack ice, but to take advantage of the 

 peculiarities in the formation of the Ice Barriers which ring round the Antarctic 

 continent, where, diving deep under the frowning ice-cliffs that confront the open 

 water, and coming up a quarter of a mile or more from the actual edge, it reaches the 

 Barrier surface where it dips in a valley to the water-level. Nothing could Ije more 

 surprising, after first scaling the ice-cliffs to reach the snowy surface of Ross' Great 

 Ice Barrier, for example, than to find that the surface gradually dips again into a long 

 valley filled with seals and seal-holes at the level of the water. 



Weddell's Seal in this way has gone farther than any other species to outwit 

 its enemies and find seclusion without reducing its chances of securing food. In the 

 summer, where it basks on the fast ice it is absolutely safe, and where it breeds it is 

 even more so. Where it feeds it is sometimes open to attack, but by no means always, 

 since it finds food freely in the water beneath the ice on which it basks and breeds. 

 In the winter, knowing that open water means danger, it is safe when the sea is frozen, 

 and by retiring South as storms break up the sea ice, it is safe while the sea is being 

 opened up. 



That its security is not mei-ely theoretical is strongly evidenced by the almost 

 total absence of all scars in the skins of the * Discovery's ' collection. Nor are these 

 skins exceptional, for it is a very rare thing indeed to find a Weddell's Seal with such 

 scars and ugly wounds as are to be found commonly on the lax'ge majority of 

 Crab-eaters' (Lobodon) skins. I have only on one or two occasions seen scars such 



