Chap, viii.] SEA ELEPHANTS. I77 



skin placed above the nostrils, just as is the "cap" in the 

 northern Bladder-nose seal {Cystophora proboscidea). The 

 trunk is evidently, as appears from both the drawings, saccu- 

 lated, and hence irregular in form v/hen inflated. In the 

 Bladder-nose the nasal cap develops only at advanced age, just 

 as in the case of the trunk of the Sea-Elephant. 



I bought the stone carving from the harpooner for a sovereign 

 and a bottle of whisky. He would not have taken five pounds 

 less the whisky, as it was a matter of honour with him that he 

 should get a drink for his shipmates out of the proceeds. 



Whilst we were killing the male Elephant, two of the cows 

 had been killed by the sailors ; one of them got away for a 

 time, to our extreme regret, badly wounded, into the sea, and 

 the unfortunate animal had to be shot several times before it 

 was killed. Being wounded, it made back for the shore. I 

 was astonished at this, since it is directly contrary to the 

 ordinary habits of seals. I presume the animal sought safety 

 with the rest of the herd. 



The Sea-Elephants have a most enormous quantity of blood 

 in them. This wounded female stained all the water of the 

 head of the little bay, red. The blood, so black in the body 

 of the seal, and dark like the muscles, became of a bright 

 arterial red as it mingled with the sea water. Mr. R. Brown 

 (in his account of the Arctic Seals and Whales inhabiting the 

 Coasts of Greenland, " Proc. Zoolog. Soc," 1864), refers to the 

 remarkably dark colour of the flesh of seals, due to the gorging 

 of the muscles with venous blood ; and states further, that in 

 the young seals, which have never been in the water, the 

 muscles are red, and that the blood of the seal, dark when 

 shed, turns thus red, when exposed to sea water or the air. 



These Sea-Elephants, which were prepared as skeletons on 

 board the ship, were found to have only a greenish slime in 

 their stomachs. Neither the OiariidcE nor the Sea-Elephants 

 feed during the breeding season, but live upon their fat, be- 

 coming gradually thinner and thinner. The Sea-Elephants 

 have a regular layer of blubber on their bodies like that of 

 whales and porpoises. So perfect a protection is this non- 

 conductor against loss of heat, that a dead walrus, which like 

 most seals has the same covering, has been found to retain its in- 

 ternal temperature after having lain 12 hours in ice-cold water.* 

 In the Fur-Seals {Ardocephalus), there is no such thick layer 

 of blubber developed, but only a small quantity of fat attached 

 to the skin. The muscles also are redder than in other seals, 



* "Die zweite Deutsche Nord-Polarfahrt in den Jahren 1S69 und 

 1870." 2. Bd. Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse, Leipzig, F. A. Brockhaus, 

 1874. W. Peters, Zeugethiere und Fisehe. 



12 



