224 ELEPHANT SEAL. 



ness. It is the oil, however, which is chiefly prized 

 by the fishers, and this is the immediate object of 

 their enterprising expeditions ; nor need we wonder 

 when we think either on the quantity, the quality, 

 or the facility with which it is prepared. In fact, 

 the Sea- Elephant does not yield to most of the cete 

 in the thickness of its blubber, which is often more 

 than a foot, and supplies a prodigious quantity, 

 amounting to 1400 or 1500 pounds in the largest 

 individuals. Its preparation is very similar to that 

 of the whale oil, except that it is always carried on 

 upon land. All agree that its quality is most excel- 

 lent. It is limpid, inodorous, and never becomes 

 rancid ; in cooking, it imparts no disagreeable sa- 

 vour ; and in burning, it produces no smoke nor 

 smell, and is slow of combustion. In England, it is 

 used for the softening of wool and the manufacture 

 of cloth ; and it is also much used in China. 



This fishing has been prosecuted in many quar- 

 ters : King's and New- Year's Island were in full ac- 

 tivity at the commencement of this century ; a third 

 station existed at Kerquelen's Land, a fourth in the 

 Sandwich Islands, whilst others were forming in the 

 States' Islands and elsewhere. Thus, this gigantic 

 species was attacked in many points at once ; its 

 numbers have been thinned with the greatest possible 

 rapidity, and its entire extinction was and is to be 

 dreaded. 



This interesting sketch of the Zoologist of Le 

 Geographic is so carefully and successfully drawn, 

 that we have been studious not to interrupt the 



