A bull sea elephant. Bay of Isles 



up" from the sea again, and as the month advances considerable herds of 

 exceedingly fat females gather on the upper beaches. The males come later, 

 during February and March, and are then of enormous bulk and very 

 lethargic. These are the "March bulls" which sealers prize, for one such 

 may yield five or six barrels of oil. They locate wherever they can find 

 company, and if undisturbed remain in sleepy ease throughout the remainder 

 of the Antarctic summer and the autumn. During the winter they divide 

 their time between the land and the adjacent waters, and are in prime 

 condition when they come ashore to stay during the breeding season of the 

 following spring. 



The attribute par excellence on which the sea elephant's reputation rests 

 is large size. For a number of weeks after arriving at the Bay of Isles I saw 

 no animal more than thirteen feet in length, except the dismal remains of 

 bulls slain in former years. But during February, seventeen and eighteen- 

 foot bulls, just out of the sea, were taken a dozen times, and on the last day 

 of the month the record seal, twenty feet six inches long, was killed in Pos- 

 session Bay. I did not see this huge brute until after it had been stripped 

 of blubber, but as it measured twenty-one feet four inches (651 centimeters) 

 while lying on its back in its flensed condition, the mate's flesh measurement 

 is certainly not exaggerated. Our second largest bull was shorter than this 

 by two feet. When the animals are in best condition (from a sealer's point 

 of view at any rate) a large sea elephant's girth may very nearly equal its 



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