THE CRAB-EATING SEAL. 35 



as big as shot of all sizes. What has brought this old seal on shore ? To judge by 

 his tracks he has stayed there several days. He was presumably ill, as he was very 

 lean, with only about half an inch of fat. Perhaps this is a solution of the question as 

 to where all the dead seals come from which I have found scattered about on the 

 point here and in the guano ; perhaps this is a burial-place for old seals, and they 

 crawl on land here to die. If this is so, my first supposition that all the seal 

 mummies are due to its being a breeding-place for the White Seal is thereby knocked 

 on the head ; but this does not decrease the interest of my last conjecture." 



On October 14th, 1899, Hanson died, his great wish the investigation of the 

 breeding habits of the White Seal remaining unfulfilled. We know but little more 

 of their breeding habits now than he knew then, but we do know, that where 

 he was stationed at Cape Adare, there was no possibility of discovering more, and 

 indeed the only light that has been thrown upon the matter has come from the 

 pack ice farther north. 



Dr. Racovitza, of the ' Belgica,' procured and photographed a young Lobodon 

 immediately after its birth. This animal he has thus described : " Le jeune unique 

 est convert d'une epaisse fourrure, de la meme couleur que celle des parents, mais 

 beaucoup plus fournie. Le bebe, au moment de sa naissance, a une taille considerable ; 

 1'15 metre (=3 feet 9 inches); il possede deja des dents et des yeux parfaitement 

 fonctionnels et meme une couche de graisse sous-cutane"e efficace pour le protdger 

 du froid. II peut done immediatement se tirer d'affaire tout seul ; aussi la mere 

 1'abandonne-t-elle apres 1'avoir allaite seulement deux ou trois jours." 



By no other expedition has so young an example of this seal been brought home. 

 In the ' Discovery ' we had no better fortune than the other expeditions which were 

 in the Antarctic with us. We can only say therefore that the Crab-eater breeds 

 neither along the coasts or coastal ice nor on the Barrier ice of the Antarctic land 

 masses, conjecturing with almost certainty that it breeds always in the pack ice of 

 the more open seas. The appearance of the young at birth in September we know 

 from the above description and from a photograph reproduced in Dr. Racovitza's 

 paper. But, in its early independence and in the very speedy desertion of its mother 

 this seal differs from Weddell's Seal, which not only tends but suckles its young for 

 at least five weeks and often more after birth, and quite constantly for a week or 

 two after the infant has shed its natal woolly coat and entered water. 



The adult Crab-eater differs markedly in build from the heavy, phlegmatic 

 unwieldy Weddell's Seal, for although in length it ranges up to 9 feet from the tip of 

 the nose to the end of the tail flippers, it has never the bulk that characterises the 

 Weddell's Seal. It is long and slim, tailing off' gently from the shoulders backwards 

 (figs. 23 and 24, p. 32). The neck is long, and merges also gently with the head, 

 which has an elongated appearance from the lengthening of the snout. The snout 

 is distinctly pig-like, and can be given a turned-up, truncated look when the animal 

 is in fear or otherwise excited, and the nostrils are dilated. 



