20 EDWAED A. WILSON. 



At the close of the rutting season, which follows directly upon the separation of 

 the young ones from their mothers, it is noticeable how often one may find the bulls 

 in secluded places, to which they have retired with a multitude of open wounds. This 

 bears upon the discovery of dead seals, not only in secluded spots, but in places which 

 one would have thought were almost inaccessible to them. There can be no doubt, how- 

 ever, that the same instinct which leads a temporarily damaged bull to retire from 

 all company for awhile leads a sick or aged seal which no longer feels equal to the 

 struggle for existence amongst its fellows to retire still further, and to persist in its 

 efforts at retiring to the moment of its death. In this way, and in no other, can we 

 account for the discovery of dead seals at a distance of 35 miles inland from the coast, 

 and on the surface of a glacier no less than 3,000 feet above sea-level. In these cases the 

 carcases were those of Crab-eaters ; again the carcases of four Crab-eaters were found by 

 Mr. Ferrar at the foot of '' Cathedral Rocks," in the Royal Society's Range, 2,000 feet 

 above sea-level, and thirty miles inland. Yet another was found on New Harbour 

 Glacier, 200 feet above sea-level, and twenty miles from the coast. 



The carcase of a Weddell's Seal was found by Lieutenant Armitage 2,400 feet above 

 sea-level on a similar glacier, and other seal remains at similar heights and distances 

 from the coast. On another sledge journey along the western side of McMurdo 

 Sound two dead Weddell's Seals were found, much weathered, on the tongue of Koettlitz 

 Glacier, some twenty miles from the sea-ice ; and, still further in, an old and battle- 

 scarred male alive, and covered with suppurating sores, more than twenty miles from 

 any of his kind. The instinct of retirement is strong when evil overtakes these animals, 

 and their one idea is to get far away from their fellows. Starvation in such cases must 

 have expedited matters, and the climate being of a kind to preserve the remains, we 

 came upon them, as I have stated, in the course of our various sledge journeys. 



Weddell's Seal, by its shape and build, is by no means so well fitted for 

 progression on the ice as it is for rapid movement in the water. All its enemies they 

 cannot be very numerous are in the water ; its food also is in the water, and its whole 

 energies must be directed to the avoidance of the one and the overtaking of the other. 

 It therefore becomes transformed on entering the water into a rapid fish-like swimmer 

 that can beat the pace of the fishes that form its food. 



If one watches this seal on a flat surface (and when out of the water it is almost 

 always on sea ice), one notices that the ordinary method of progression is a very 

 laboured " hitching along " of its bulky body a foot or two at a time, the chest being 

 used as a fixed point upon which to draw up the remainder of the body by the action 

 of the abdominal muscles. In this way the pubic part of the pelvis becomes in turn 

 the fixed point, and upon it the body is again shot forward. The limbs in this 

 mode of progression are not brought into action at all, indeed the hind limbs, palm to 

 palm, are held in a vertical plane extended backwards with the tail and raised from 

 contact with the ice. The fore limbs, also held closely applied to the sides of the 

 chest, cannot even be considered of use in keeping the animal on an even keel, for 



