4 NATURAL SCIENCE. July, 



Although no right whales were sighted, a large number of seals, 

 of various kinds, were taken, and by the middle of February the 

 vessel in which the Times' correspondent sailed had secured its full 

 quota. Three different kinds of seals were taken, which are described 

 as the " large seal," the " white Antarctic seal," and the leopard seal. 

 The species of the last is, of course, certain, while the second would 

 appear to be the crab-eating Lobodon carcinophaga, and the first is 

 probably Widdel's sea* (LeptonycJiotes tveddeli). Besides these, it is 

 stated that the party came across a fourth kind of seal, described as 

 of large size, with a small head, small flippers, thick blubber, and 

 a rather woolly pellage. Possibly this may prove to be the rare 

 Ommatophoca rossi, at present known only by two immature examples ; 

 but, in any case, it is to be hoped that skulls and skins of all these 

 seals have been brought home in a state fit for scientific examination. 

 The writer describes the Antarctic seals as very foolish creatures. 

 "The present generation have never seen man, and they survey him 

 open-mouthed and fearful, during which process they are laid low 

 with club or bullet. Sometimes they are so lazy with sleep that a 

 man may dig them in the ribs with the muzzle of his gun, and, 

 wondering what is disturbing their slumbers, they raise their head, 

 which quickly falls pierced with a bullet. There may only be one 

 seal on a piece of ice, which is usually the case with the larger kind ; 

 but the smaller kinds lie in half-dozens and tens, and as many as 47 

 were seen on one piece. Seldom do any escape — one cartridge means 

 one seal." 



Protoplasm. 



At a recent meeting of that very up-to-date society, the Oxford 

 University Junior Scientific Club, Professor Ray Lankester exhibited 

 a fine specimen of a creeping plasmodium. On the general subject 

 of protoplasm he said that a very common error at present was to 

 abuse the word protoplasm. It is not the name of any chemical sub- 

 stance, but of the living slimy material which is to be seen round the 

 nucleus constituting the substance of all living cells. To this sub- 

 stance the name was first given some forty years ago, and for this 

 substance the name must be retained. It was quite true that pro- 

 bably a definite chemical substance of very high complexity was 

 present in all protoplasm — a substance to which the name " Proteil " 

 might be applied if that name had not been appropriated for the 

 hypothetical basal form of all matter. This chemical substance 

 might never be isolated and worked out. By its very nature it was 

 extremely unstable — changing its composition, vanishing, dissolving 

 almost as you looked at it — and in living protoplasm besides this sub- 

 stance there must be present always a number of chemical substances, 

 some of them on the way up to the highest point, some on the down- 

 ward path. The late Professor Moseley always insisted on a similar 



