752 M. ANGUSTIROSTRIS CALIFORNIA>f SEA ELEPHANT. 



extirpated. Captain Scammon, in writing (about 1852) of Ce- 

 dros Island, off the coast of Lower California, says: "Seals 

 and Sea Elephants once basked ui)on the shores of this isolated 

 spot in vast numbers, and in years past its surrounding shores 

 teemed with sealers, Sea Elephant and Sea Otter hunters; 

 the remains of their rude stone-houses are still to be seen in 

 many convenient places, which were once the habitations of 

 these hardy men."* A few Sea Elephants are still found at 

 Santa Barbara Island, where they are reported, however, to 

 be nearly extinct. Whether or not they still occur elsewhere 

 along the California coast I am without means of determining^ 

 although it is probable that a small remnant still exists at other 

 points, where scarcely more than a quarter of a century ago 

 vessels were freighted with their oil. Neither is it possible to 

 determine with certainty the limits of their former range. Cap- 

 tain Scammon, who doubtless obtained his information from 

 trustworthy sources, states that it extended from Cape Lazaro, 

 latitude 24 46' north, to Point Eeyes, in latitude 38, or for a 

 distance of about two hundred miles. As already stated {an- 

 tea, p. 290), Dampier, in 1G86, met with Seals on the islands 

 off the western coast of Mexico, as far south as latitude 21 to 

 23, but of what species his record unfortunately fails to show. 

 They were doubtless either Sea Elephants or Sea Lions {Zalo- 

 plms californianus), and may have included both. This rather 

 implies its former extension, two hundred years ago, consider- 

 ably to the southward of the limit assigned by Captain Scam- 

 mon, on probably traditional reports current among the resi- 

 dents of this part of the coast at the time of his visit there in 

 1852. 



General History. The CaUfornia Sea Elephant was first 

 described by Dr. Gill, in 1866, from a skull of a female in the 

 Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, received from Saint 

 Bartholomew's Bay, Lower California. Its external characters 

 were first made known by Captain C. M. Scammon in 1869, and 

 the species was redescribed by him in 1 874, with detailed meas- 

 urements of two adult females and a newly -born pup. This is 

 all that has thus far appeared relating to its technical history. 

 Captain Scammon, as early as 1854, gave some account of the 

 habits of this species, under the name Sea Elephant, and ear- 

 lier incidental references to it doubtless occur in the narratives 



* In J. Ross Browne's "Resources of the Pacific Sloi)e" [A^^.], p. 129. 



