ELEPHANT SEAL. 215 



to return to sea. Nor do they revisit that element 

 till the period of lactation is over ; and it has been 

 stated that, if at any time the mothers appear to be 

 separating themselves from their young, the males 

 pursue, and by biting, force them to remain at their 

 post. According to Peron, they have only one ay 

 a birth, very rarely two, whilst Anson states they 

 have generally two. The young at birth are be- 

 tween four and five feet long, and weigh seventy 

 pounds, and even then the male is larger than the 

 female. In suckling it the mother reclines upon 

 her side. The period of lactation continues seven 

 or eight weeks, during which period no member of 

 the family either eats or goes to sea. The growth 

 of the young one is very rapid : in the first eight 

 days it doubles its dimensions, and increases to 

 more than twice its original weight. This rapid 

 development is of course at the expense of the 

 mother, and as she does not make up her loss with 

 any kind of food, she manifestly wastes away from 

 day to day, and has sometimes been observed to 

 sink under it, though it is difficult to determine 

 whether this fatal result arises only from the great 

 drain, or from some fatal disorder. The first teeth 

 appear at the end of a fortnight, and in four months 

 they are all present. The growth of this species 

 is so rapid, that at the end of the third year the 

 young animals have attained the length of from 

 eighteen to twenty-five feet, which is the ordinary 

 limit of their growth, and after this they increase 

 principally in fatness. 



