Elephant Seals of Guadalupe Island 



Then the elephant seal disappeared from view, 

 and was not seen for eight years, when it again 

 fell to my lot to report its existence. In 1892, I 

 was sent by the Secretary of State in a chartered 

 vessel to Guadalupe, an uninhabited island lying 

 140 miles off the coast of Lower California, to 

 identify the species of fur seal reported to exist 

 there, the information being desired for the fur 

 seal arbitration then being held in Paris. Quite 

 unexpectedly we found eight more elephant seals, 

 some of which we took for museum purposes. 



Specimens of the large male seals, with proboscis 

 fully developed, and information respecting their 

 habits were still lacking, and nineteen more years 

 passed away before I got the splendid opportunity 

 to procure them, which I shall now describe. 



In March, 1911, while in charge of the deep- 

 sea investigations of the U. S. S. Albatross, I called 

 at Guadalupe Island with the faint hope that a few 

 elephant seals might have escaped the oil hunters 

 of former years. The hope was more than real- 

 ized: when I left the island after two days' work, 

 we had the skins of three giant males, a full-grown 

 female, two complete skeletons, and six live year- 

 lings. Besides, my portfolio was filled with pho- 

 tographs, and my journal with notes on the living 

 animals. We left undisturbed behind us a splendid 



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