362 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Appx. 



we were quartered there. Not one, but several, were found by 

 Armitage at a height of 2,000 feet, and between twenty and thirty 

 miles from the actual coast. 



I have already mentioned the Weddell seal as a rival of the 

 Ross in its powers of producing vocal music. It was a constant 

 source of amusement to us to stir up an old bull Weddell and 

 make him sing ; he would begin sometimes with a long and 

 musical moan at a high pitch, which gradually got lower and 

 sounded much like the ice-moans that are common on an exten- 

 sive sheet of ice. This was followed by a series of grunts and 

 gurgles, and a string of plaintive piping notes, which ended up 

 exactly on the call-note of a bullfinch. Then came a long, shrill 

 whistle, and a snort to finish, as though he had for too long held 

 his breath. 



All this was leisurely, and interrupted with the sleepy blinking 

 that characterised his half-awakened consciousness of something 

 strange and unusual in the look of the observer standing near him ; 

 one could not but wonder how long the impression of such a 

 novelty would last upon the memory of a seal, for while one 

 watched and wondered he would fall asleep again, and be just as 

 puzzled if he was awakened two minutes later. 



We were well situated to observe the Weddells, as they were 

 with us throughout the year, but of the others we saw much less 

 for the reasons given above. There is no probability that any 

 new form remains to be discovered, and the breeding habits of 

 the others will become known only to such as have the luck of 

 wintering in the pack-ice as did the 'Belgica.' And it is my 

 belief that the pack-ice around Cape North and the Balleny 

 Islands is one of the strongholds of the Ross. 



There is no doubt that so far as birds were concerned our 

 position in 78° S. latitude was too far south. 



Although in the pack-ice and during our cruise along the 

 coast of South Victoria Land we saw twelve different species of 

 bird, this number, except for an occasional straggler, was reduced 

 to three in our winter quarters. At the mouth of McMurdo Sound 

 we saw occasionally a few Giant petrels, Snow petrels, and 

 Wilson's Stormy petrels, but where the ship was wintered, ten or 

 twenty miles farther to the south, they were very rarely seen. In 

 the pack-ice and in the Ross Sea we saw the Southern Fulmar 

 petrel {Priocella glacialoides) and the Antarctic petrel ( Thalassceca 

 antarcticd)^ but not in McMurdo Sound. 



