114 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



He found the beaches swarming with seals ; 

 but relates that although short of provision he could 

 not get his men to salt seal meat for future needs. 

 Some thirty years afterwards Sir Hans Sloane stated 

 that the seals were so abundant in the West Indies 

 that a hundred were often killed in a day. 



The present status of the Jamaica seal is un- 

 satisfactory, and its future appears much more than 

 threatened ; the swarminor herds of Sir Hans Sloane's 

 day seem little likely to be seen again. In 1846 

 Mr. Wilkie's party landed on the Pedro Reefs, a chain 

 of coral rocks about ninety miles long, situated off 

 the southern coast of Jamaica. They found the 

 seals in moderate numbers only, and killed eight of 

 them ; the stomachs were examined, but were found 

 empty. One of the specimens was presented to 

 Mr. Gosse, who gave it to the National Collection ; 

 it long remained the only example in any museum. 

 In 1877-78 an officer of the U. S. coast steamer 

 " Blake," killed several individuals near the Alacrane 

 Islands and on the Isle of Pines, south of Cuba. In 

 1886 forty seals were taken on the Triangles — three 

 small islands in Campeachy Bay, between Florida 

 and Yucatan — and some, at any rate, of the skins were 

 sent to various museums. The pelt of an adult 

 male, shot on the Triangles by Mr. H. L. W^ard, in 

 December, 1886, was sold to Heer Frank, a well- 

 known dealer in Amsterdam ; the next year it was 

 acquired from him for the Leyden Museum. 



