DOMESTIC LIFE 



a few inches, but later, when entering from the ice 

 terraces, we constantly saw them making the most 

 graceful dives. 



At the place where they most often went in, a 

 long terrace of ice about six feet in height ran for 

 some hundreds of yards along the edge of the water, 

 and here, just as on the sea-ice, crowds would stand 

 near the brink. When they had succeeded in 

 pushing one of their number over, all would crane 

 their necks over the edge (Fig. 44), and when 

 they saw the pioneer safe in the water, the rest 

 followed. 



When diving into shallow water they fall flat 

 (Figs. 45, 46, and 47), but into deep water, and from 

 any considerable height, they assume the most per- 

 fect positions (Fig. 50) and make very little splash. 

 Occasionally we saw them stand hesitating to dive 

 at a height of some twenty feet, but generally they 

 descended to some lower spot, and did not often 

 dive from such a height, but twelve feet was no 

 uncommon dive for them. 



The reluctance shown by each individual of a 

 party of intending bathers to be the first to enter 

 the water may partly have been explained when, 

 later on, we discovered that a large number of 

 sea-leopards were gathered in the sea in the neigh- 



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