ELEPHANT SEALS OF GUADALUPE 

 ISLAND 



The elephant seal is the largest of all fin-footed 

 mammals, a full-grown male exceeding twenty-two 

 feet in length, with a greater girth than the largest 

 walrus. Its name is due partly to its size and 

 partly to the remarkable proboscis developed by 

 the full-grown male. There are two divisions of 

 the family, one living amid the chilly waters of 

 antarctic islands, the other along the warm shores 

 of the Californias. The stock is of ancient lineage, 

 and the separation took place so long ago that 

 marked differences have developed. In remote 

 South America the young are born in November, 

 when summer is beginning. North of the equator 

 they first see the light in March. Climate, season, 

 and food slowly wrought changes until the very 

 skull became altered, and the Northern offshoot 

 acquired the characteristics of a separate species. 



Sixty years ago the Northern elephant seal had 

 a range of a thousand miles along the coasts of 

 Mexico and California ; to-day it lives on a single 



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