4 Southern Cross. 



Mr. Bruce found all four species on the pack-ice, where, " loving 

 the sun, they lie on the pack all day, digesting their meal of the 

 previous night, which had consisted of fish or small crustaceans, or 

 both. . . . All the Seals were obtained from the pack-ice, in bluest 

 and clearest water. . . . The present generation had never seen 

 man, and at his approach they did not attempt to flee, but surveyed 

 him open-mouthed and fearful, during which process they were 

 laid low with club or bullet. Sometimes they were so lazy with 

 sleep that I ha^'e seen a man dig them in the ribs with the 

 muzzle of his gun, and, wondering what was disturbing their 

 slumbers, they raised their head, only too quickly to fall pierced 

 with a bullet, . . . 



"... In December all the Seals were in bad condition, thinly 

 blubbered, and grievously scarred, and it is noteworthy that the 

 females appeared to be as freely scarred as the males. During 

 January their condition improved, and by February they were 

 heavily blubl^ered and full of scars. The males were apparently as 

 numerous as the females, but I made no definite statistics. . . . By 

 February the embryo is well developed, gestation probably beginning 

 in December. . . . Almost every female, towards the end of January 

 and February, is with young. In no individual did I find more than 

 one embryo. ..." 



The Seals showed great power of jumping out of the water. On 

 one occasion some were found " on a tilted berg, and so high was the 

 ledge above the level of the water," that Mr. Bruce relates that the 

 sealers only " clambered up with difficulty and secured their prey." 

 He has seen the Seals " rising 8 or 10 feet above the sea, and covering 

 distances of fully 20 feet in length." 



The extraordinary scars and wounds observed on the Seals, as 

 described by Mr. Bruce, have been already noticed by previous 

 naturalists and attributed to various causes. One of the most 

 fanciful theories ascribes them to the attacks of a large and unknown 

 terrestrial carnivorous mammal corresponding to the Polar Bear of 

 Arctic regions. No traces of any such mammal have been found by 

 later expeditions. 



Mr. W. G. Burn-Murdoch, who visited the Antarctic in 1892-93 

 on board the ' Balaena' writes : — The " Seals evidently consider the 

 centre of the snow-pieces their refuge from danger ; probably the 

 Orca or Grampus treats them here as it does the Seals in the north. 

 We found some of the Seals very much scarred with long parallel 

 wounds almost encircling their bodies. I think that these were 

 marks left Viy the Grampus ; the smaller cuts about their necks and 



