1893.1 Sir W. E. Flower on Seals. 81 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 

 Friday, April 14, 1893. 



Sir Frederick Abel, K.C.B. D.C.L. D.So. F.R.S. Vice-President, 



in the Chair. 



Sir William H. Flower, K.C.B. D.C.L. LL.D. D.So. F.E.S. 



Seals. 



Sir William Flower began by recalling that about two years ago 

 Lord Salisbury, while taking a comprehensive survey of the general 

 state of international politics, remarked that there were, happily, 

 then, no graver subjects to excite the anger and jealousy of rival 

 nations than seals and lobsters, and it was to the study of the habits 

 of these animals that the energies of diplomatists were mainly 

 directed. In the present lecture it was proposed to speak only of 

 seals, and, taking the common seal as a type, he described its general 

 character and position in the Animal Kingdom. The lecturer then 

 passed in review the distinctive traits and geographical distribution 

 of the various allied species of true seals, and pointed out their 

 economic uses and mode of capture. The next animal treated of was 

 the walrus, and finally, the third group into which the seals are 

 divided — the eared-seals, sea-lions, or sea-bears. These differ from 

 the true seals in possessing small external ears, and in the power of 

 using their hind feet in walking on land like ordinary quadrupeds. 

 It is animals of this group which yield the beautiful fur called 

 " sealskin " in commerce, and the lecture was illustrated by speci- 

 mens of this fur in various stages of preparation. The wholesale 

 destruction of fur-seals which formerly went on throughout the 

 southern hemisphere was next spoken of, and a more detailed account 

 given of the very remarkable habits of the species from the Behring 

 Sea, which for many years has been the main source of supply of 

 sealskin dresses, and the right of capture of which is now the subject 

 of controversy between Great Britain and the United States. After 

 giving an outline of the questions, as far as tbey related to the 

 natural history of the animals, to be placed before the arbitrators, he 

 concluded by saying that we can scarcely be too grateful to the 

 statesmen of both nations for having so far agreed as to bring the 

 whole of this difficult and complicated question before such a tribunal 

 as that now sitting at Paris. 



[W. H. F.] 



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Vol. XIV. (No. 87.) 



