Hunting at High Altitudes 



an elephant seal at a distance of eight or ten feet, 

 and then had a sailor kick the animal violently in 

 the ribs. One of them became thoroughly an- 

 gered only after a sailor had jumped upon his back. 

 When moving of its own accord, the elephant seal 

 arches the body in a way suggestive of the motion 

 of the inchworm, drawing the hindquarters well 

 forward, with the belly lifted from the ground, and 

 then shifting the forequarters with the front flip- 

 pers braced outward. 



The large males which accompanied the nursing 

 females were frequently engaged in fights with 

 unattached males. There had evidently been con- 

 siderable fighting, as their necks were more or less 

 raw, and in some cases had festering sores. In 

 comparison, the necks of the younger males were 

 smooth and without tooth-marks. In fighting, the 

 large males crawl slowly and laboriously within 

 striking distance, and then, rearing on the front 

 flippers and drawing the heavy, pendent proboscis 

 into wrinkled folds well up on top of the snout, 

 strike at each other's necks with their large canines. 

 The fighting was accompanied with more or less 

 snorting, but we heard none of the extremely loud 

 bellowing described by writers as characteristic of 

 the antarctic species of elephant seal. 



The skin of the under surface of the neck and 

 414 



