1912] Toivnsend: Northern Elephant Seal. 163 



mature animals of various sizes. There were probably not more 

 than fifteen adult females present and only six of these were 

 accompanied by newly born young. The indications were, there- 

 fore, that the breeding season was just commencing and that 

 other adult females might arrive later. We did not observe any 

 male with more than one female, and the family groups were 

 distributed all along the rookery. 



Size. 



The three males which we killed were the largest in sight 

 and were found to average just sixteen feet in length, with an 

 average girth of eleven feet. The largest specimen of the north- 

 ern elephant seal recorded as actually measured was "twenty-two 

 feet long from tip to tip and yielded 210 gallons of oil."* The 

 adult female we killed was nearly eleven feet long. Some of the 

 females with young pups appeared to be slightly longer, but we 

 did not attempt to measure them. There were numerous imma- 

 ture males about the size of the adult female and many animals 

 of intermediate sizes between these and the newly born pups. 

 Animals of the yearling size were distinctly more numerous than 

 those of any other size. The newly born pups were quite distin- 

 guishable in color from the yearlings, being dusky black. They 

 were about a week old. The color of the adults is yellowish 



*Scammon. Overland Monthly, February, 1870. In this article the writer 

 refers to individuals that attained "the enormous dimensions of twelve feet in cir- 

 cumference and more than twenty-four feet in length. Lydekker, in discussing 

 the Antarctic species says, "Probably twenty-five feet would not be an undue 

 estimate for the length of an adult male, and it is far from improbable that close 

 upon thirty feet may have been reached in some cases." Morrell says, "I have seen 

 the male (Antarctic) sea elephant more than twenty-five feet in length, and meas- 

 uring sixteen feet around the body." 



The elephant seal is much larger than the walrus, which does not exceed 

 thirteen feet in length or fourteen feet in girth. 



Captain B. D. Cleveland of New Bedford, Massachusetts, who has during the 

 past dozen years made several voyages to Kerguelen Island after elephant seals, 

 says in a recent article in Hampton's Magazine that the largest males measure 

 sixteen feet in length, thirteen feet in girth and may yield as much as 245 gallons 

 of oil. He found the blubber to be seven inches thick on the fattest animals at 

 the commencement of the season, six or eight weeks later it was not more than two 

 inches thick, the seals having fasted in the meantime. Captain Cleveland says 

 he secured from 2,600 to 3,000 barrels of oil on a voyage, that the animals are 

 killed by shooting and that the skin has no commercial value. Sealing begins in 

 November and ends in May before the harbor freezes over. With a crew of 

 thirty-five men, 120 elephant seals were killed and stripped in one day. The oil 

 is worth from forty-seven to fifty cents a gallon. 



