386 ARTICLE BY DE. J. A. ALLEN. 



Jaiuaicii, particularly by Captain Loug, avIio, liaviug tlio command of a 

 small liaik, came liitlier ijuiposely to make Sea-Oyl, and anchored on the 

 North side of one of the sandy Islands, the most convenient Place for his 

 design." Captain Long was nearly shipwrecked " by a fierce North- 

 wind, which blew his Bark ashore;" but he afterwards repaired his 

 vessel, filled his casks with oil, '' and lading his Oyi . . . went 

 merrily away for Trist." (Dampier, Voyage Kound the World, ii, pt. 

 2, 3d ed., 1705, pp. 23, 24. 



These few extracts seem to comprise about all that relates to the early 



history of the West Indian seal — enough to show that 

 iiSlalf seah'^^^^^^'i^ ^^'^^ abundant at localities widely separated, and that 



it was pra(jtically destroyed at a very early date through 

 indiscriminate slaughter for its oil. At the present day a few individ- 

 uals exist among the islets of Salt Key Bank, north of Cuba at some of 

 the islands off the coast of Yucatan, and probably at a few other of the 

 uninhabited islands between Cuba and Yucatan, and possibly at the 

 rocks and keys oft' the south coast of Jamaica, where it certainly existed 

 in small numbers forty to sixty years ago. 



v.— Genus OGMORHINUS Peters. 

 11. LEorARD Seal, Ogmorhinus leptonyx (Blaiuv.). 



Habitat: Southern Seas; New Zealand and islands to the eastward 

 and southward; Kergueland Land, Heard Island, etc. 



This large Seal has a wide range in the southern seas, but its distri- 

 bution and habits are still not well known. It is one of the several seals 

 found in the southern hemisphere which the sealers confound under the 

 general name of sea-leopard. This and the three following- species fall 

 a prey to the sea-elephant hunters, but as none of them are apparently 

 very numerous they have never figured conspicuously in the annals of 

 sealing. 



VI.— Genus LOBODON Gray. 

 12. Crab eating seal, Lohodon carcinojjhaga (H. &. J.). 



Habitat: Southern and Antarctic oceans. 



A little known si)ecies occasionally taken by the sea-elei^hant hun- 

 ters. 



VII.— Genus LEPTONYCHOTES Gill. 

 13. Weddell's seal, Le])lonijchotes wcdddli (Gray). 



Habitat: Southern seas; coasts of Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, and 

 islands to tlie southward. 



A rare and little known species. 



VIII.— Genus OMMATOPHOCA Gray. 

 14. Eoss's SEAL, Otnmatophoca Srossi (Gray). 

 Habitat: " Antarctic Seas," a little known species. 



