i64 kerguelen's land. 



turbed, as one sees a bear sway his head. One of the party 

 came up as we were watching him, and running close up as if 

 to a helpless Sea Elephant, was forced to retreat in a hurry, for 

 the beast made a savage dash at him, open-mouthed. 



The seal was very difficult to kill outright. Fur Seals 

 are easily knocked over with a blow on the nose, but are very 

 tenacious of life, and require to have their throats cut directly 

 they are stunned, or they escape after all. 



There are still a considerable number of Fur Seals about 

 Kerguelen's Land. I killed two ; two were killed by our party 

 at Howes Foreland, and two others were seen there. Two 

 of the whaling schooners killed over 70 Fur Seals on one 

 day, and upwards of 20 on another, at some small islands off 

 Howes Foreland to the north. It is a pity that some discretion 

 is not exercised in killing the animals, as is done in St. Paul's 

 Island in Behring's Sea, in the case of the northern Fur Seal. 

 By killing the young males, and selecting certain animals only 

 for killing, the number of seals may even be increased.* The 

 sealers in Kerguelen's Land kill all they can find. 



The sealers told us that the southern Fur Seals sometimes 

 eat penguins, and that they had found the remains of them in 

 their stomachs. Seals feed to a very large extent on Crustacea. 

 Thus Otaria jiibata is said to feed more on Crustacea and 

 smaller fish, than on large fish, and in the Campbell and 

 Auckland Islands to eat also birds, t and Mr. Brown, in his 

 account of the habits of Arctic seals and whales, says that the 

 food of the northern seals consists mostly of Crustacea, species 

 of Ganuiiarus, called " seals' food " by the whalers. J In sum- 

 mer the Northern Seals eat fish. They sometimes take down 

 birds, but not often. Dr. Buchholtz found only Crustacea in 

 the stomachs of Phoca greenlandica in the Arctic regions, 

 mainly Gammariis arctiais, and G. theinisto.% 



The sealers told me that sometimes, but very rarely, they 

 found another kind of seal, like the Fur Seal somewhat, which 

 they called the " Sea Dog." A second species of eared seal 

 probably thus occurs as a rarity at Kerguelen's Land. 



The whole beach of Christmas Harbour was covered with 



* "The Eared Seals." J. A. Allen. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., Harvard 

 Univ., Cambridge, Mass., Vol. II., No. i. 



•j- For an account of the habits of" the Southern Sea Lion, see "Twenty 

 Months in the Campbell and Auckland Islands." Peterm. Mitt. 1866, 

 s. 103. 



\ R. Brown, "On the Mammalia of Greenland," with succeeding 

 papers on the Seals and Whales. " Proc. Zool. Soc," 1864. 



§ " Die zweite Deutsche Nord-Polarfahrt in den Jahren 1869 und 1870," 

 2. Bd. Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse. Leipzig, F. A. Brockhaus, 1874. 



W. Peters, " Zeugethiere und Fische." 



