SYNOPSIS OF PINNIPEDS. 389 



form resembles the hair-seal." (Morrell, Voyages and Discoveries, p. 

 76.) 



Captain Weddell, writing more especially of the sea-elephaut of the 

 South Shetland Islands, which he visited in 1820 and 

 folloAviug years, gives tlie following respecting their jsiAuda.^ Shetland 

 habits: "The males come on shore about the end of 

 Angust and beginniug of September, and in this month and tlie first 

 part of October they are followed by tlie females, which, being with 

 young since the preceding season, choose the land at this time for tbe 

 purpose of parturition and procreation. When tlie males first arrive 

 the fat of three or four will make a tun of oil; but the average of both 

 males and females is about seven to a tun. As they live, while on shore, 

 entirely Avithont food, by the middle of December they have become 

 very lean, and their youug being at this age able to take the water, the 

 Avhole of the breeding herd leave the shores. 



"A second herd come up about the middle of January for the purpose 

 of renewing their coat of hair; in March a herd of full-grown males 

 come 111) tor the same purpose, and by the end of Aj)ril every kind of 

 them has returned to the sea." (Weddell, Voyages, p. 135.) 



Sea-elephants were formerly found in great abundance at nearly all 

 of the Oceaniclslands south of the thirtieth parallel of l^l.^^(^^ in go„ti, 

 south latitude. Kerguelan Land aiid Heard Island Pacific and imUau 

 were especially favorite resorts for them. They were °^'^*'^-^- 

 also abundant at the Falkliud Islauds, Stateu Land, South Georgia, 

 throughout the Tierra del Fuego Archii^elago, on the coasts of Pata- 

 gonia, and as far north on the Pacific coast of South America as Mas- 

 a-Fuero and Juau Fernandez. They also occurred in large numbers at 

 the Tristan d'Acunha group, the Crozets, the Prince Edward Islands, 

 St. Paul aud Amsterdam Islands, the coast and islands of southern 

 Australia and ]N"e\v Zealand, and the numerous islands to the southward 

 and eastward ot New Zealand. At most of these points, however, they 

 became long since practically exterminated, though still occurring at 

 Kerguelan Land, Heard Island, and at a few other points in sufficient 

 numbers to render sea elephant hunting attractive to the few sealers 

 and whalers who still frequent these waters. 



Sea Elephant hunting began early in the present century, and for 

 many years, either exclusively or in conjunction with 

 whaling, proved a lucrative employment, largely mo- ph^nlfhSiiing.*'^^'^ 

 uoiJolized by Americans. From the incomplete statis- 

 tics at hand, sea-elephant hunting appears to have been begun in 1803 

 on the coast of Patagonia, and was prosecuted there more or less regu- 

 larly till 1810, during which period a total of about 15,000 barrels of 

 sea-elephant oil appears to have been taken from Patagonia alone. In 

 1817 about 2,500 barrels were taken at the Falkland Islands, and also 

 about 2,500 barrels in 1837. In 1820-'22 about 4,000 barrels were taken 

 at the South Shetland Islands, and again about 2,000 barrels at the 

 same islands in 1831. About 2,000 barrels are accredited to the South 

 Georgian Islands in 1829. In 1838 5,000 barrels were obtained at Ker- 

 guelan Laud; in 1838 and 1839 about 5,000 barrels were taken at the 

 Crozet Islands, During the decade 1810-'50 nearly half the take of 

 sea-elephaut oil (about 10,000 barrels), came fi'om Kerguelan Land, 

 the total take, so far as statistics are available, being about 37,000 bar- 

 rels. About this time the sea-elephaut hunters began to visit Heard 

 Island, and of the 81,000 barrels taken during the decade of 1850-'()0, 

 four-fifths were obtained at Kerguelan Land aud Heard Island 

 (the latter first discovered iu 1853). During the following dec- 



