THE JAMAICA SEAL llj 



the Gulf Stream, bright with purple sea fans — "the 

 new Riviera" as the tourist advertisements call the 

 West Indies — dwelt in remote and inhospitable 

 regions ; yet they have been followed and har- 

 pooned almost out of existence. Nay more, the 

 Mediterranean seal of Europe, congener of the 

 Jamaican species, it is now very rare and practically 

 unknown to naturalists. But two examples have 

 been exhibited in the Regent's Park Collection. Of 

 these, the first, presented by M. Yeats Brown, Esq. 

 (British Consul at Genoa), on May i8th, 1882, did 

 not long survive; the second was purchased on 

 April 26th, 1884. Wild examples become yearly 

 rarer. From the Mediterranean species to the 

 Jamaican is but a step, and rarity but a prelude to 

 extinction. Grey whale and Pacific walrus, Mediter- 

 ranean and Jamaican seal — Di avertite omen ! 



