51 



MACROEHINUS LEONINUS. 



The Sea Elephant. 



riioca Uonina, Linn., Sjst. Nat. I. (1758), p. 38. 



Macrorhinus leonimis, Allen, Hist. N. Amer. Pinnipeds (1880), p. 466, ibique cifata ; K. A. Andersson, 

 Wiss. Ergeb. der Schwed. Siidpolar-Exped., Bd. V. 2 (1905), pp. 16-18 ; Brown, Mossman and Pirie, 

 Voy. ' Scotia' (1906), pp. 203, 261, 327. 



Mateeial in the ' Discovery ' Collection. 



No. 26, 9 , Young. Skin and skull. November 22, 1901. Macquarie Island. 

 No. 43, (J, Young. Skin and skull. November 22, 1901. Macquarie Island. 

 No 37, (J, ad. Skin and skull and complete skeleton. January, 1904. Cape Royds, South 

 Victoria Land. 



The colouring of the soft parts is as follows : — Iris, dark brown ; mouth and tongue, pale pink. 



On the occasion of our landing on the Macquarie Islands we saw something of 

 the Sea Elephants that are to be found there, a scanty remnant of a much persecuted 

 race of animals. 



The landing on the east side, in the bay known as Fisherman's Cove, is not 

 altogether easy, by reason of the swell which rolls in from the open ocean, but this 

 diminishes as one enters the belt of kelp which liberally fringes the shore. 



A short way up from the beach are a few whalers' or sealers' huts ; the flat part 

 of the coast-line, extending from a quarter to half a mile, between the water's edge 

 and the foot of the hills, is little better than a bog, stony in some places, covered with 

 tussac grass in others, and wet everywhere. 



Beside the huts was abundant evidence of the nature of the work undertaken by 

 those who had inhabited them. Not only had Sea Elephants been boiled down for oil, 

 but penguins also, and Aptenodytes longirostris had evidently come in for an undue 

 share of attention, as the heaps of their discarded bones attested. 



How near to extinction the Sea Elephant has been in these islands it is hard to 

 say, but since 1880, when Professor Scott of Dunedin visited the island and found 

 the Fur Seal quite extinct, shore parties are said to have been constantly boiling down 

 both penguins and Sea Elephants, and 20 tons of Elephant oil were taken by five 

 sealers a few years before our own visit to the island. In South Georgia, even so 

 long ago as 1823, Weddell reported the Sea Elephant to be nearly extinct, no less than 

 20,000 tons of Elephant oil having been shipped to the London market alone. At one 

 time (1802), we are told that 600 Sea Elephants were obtained in ten weeks 

 between March and May, at King's Island, in the Bass Straits. 



That seals of any kind should be still remaining is now a matter for wonder, and 

 we were surprised to find in our short visit that there were really quite a considerable 

 number of young Sea Elephants on the shore, and more, no doubt, than we saw, for 



