SPECIES. 207 



The distiibiition of the Fur Seals in the Southern Seas pre- 

 sents no obstacle to the supposition of their conspecific rela- 

 tionship. They occur not only on both the Atlantic and Pacific 

 coasts of the South American continent, about its southern ex- 

 tremity, and on all the outlying islands, including not only the 

 Falklands, the South Shetland, and South Georgian, but at 

 other small islands more to the eastward, at Prince Edward's, 

 the Crozets, Kerguelen, Saint Paul, and Amsterdam, the south- 

 ern and western shores of Australia, Tasmania, IS'ew Zealand, 

 and at the numerous smaller islands south of the two last 

 named. They have been found, in fact, at all the islands mak- 

 ing up the chain of pelagic islets stretching somewhat inter- 

 ruptedly from Cape Horn and the Falkland Islands eastward 

 to Australia and l:^ew Zealand, including among others those 

 south of the Cape of Good Hope, so famous in the annals of the 

 seal-fishery. It has been stated by Gray and others that the 

 Cape of Good Hope Fur Seals (really those of the Crozets and 

 neighboring islands) are far inferior in commercial value to 

 those of other regions ; but in tracing the history of the sealing 

 business I have failed to notice any reference to the inferior 

 quality of those from the last-named locality, or that there has 

 been any difference in the commercial value of the Fur Seal 

 skins obtained at different localities in the Southern Seas. The 

 quality differs at the same locality, wherever the Fur Seals are 

 found, with the season of the year and age of the animals, so 

 that skins may come not only from the Cape of Good Hope, 

 but from any other of the seahng-places, that one " might feel 

 convinced could not be dressed as furs," being "without very 

 thick under fur." 



In this connection I may add that Gray's figure (Hand-List 

 of Seals, pi. xxiii) of an old male skull of Arctocephalus antarc- 

 ticus so closely resembles an aged male skull (Ko. 1125, M. C. 

 Z. Coll.) of Arctocephalus australis {= falTclandicus, auct.), that 

 the latter might have served as the original of the figures ! while 

 other skulls of the last-named species bear a striking resem- 

 blance to Gray's figures of his Euotaria cinerea (Hand- List, pi. 

 xxvi) and his U. latirostris (ib., pi. xxvii). In fact, the series of 

 skulls of Arctocephalus australis in the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, from the Straits of Magellan and the west coast of 

 South America, presents variations that seem to cover all of 

 Gray's species of Arctocepliahis and Evotaria as figured by him 

 in the Hand-List of Seals. 



