NINTH ANNUAL REPORT. 107 



o-uelen Island by a vessel from New London, Conn. In 1897 a 

 vessel from Boston visited Kerguelen Island and secured about 

 4,000 of the animals, which yielded 1,700 barrels of oil. A sub- 

 equent voyage was made to the same locality when the supply 

 of seals was exhausted. 



Northern Sca-Elcphant. — An off-shoot of this species formerly 

 existed along- the coast of western North America from the 

 islands of Southern California to the southern part of the peninsula 

 of Lower California. It was for many years the basis of a seal- 

 ing industr\- of no small importance, but was abandoned many 

 years ago on account of the practical extermination of the species. 

 In 1884 the writer visited Lower California in search of speci- 

 mens of the sea-elephant for museum purposes. Although nearly 

 the entire west coast of the peninsula was explored, only eighteen 

 of the animals were found. In 1892 the writer visited Guada- 

 lupe Island, off the coast of Lower California, where six more 

 specimens were secured. This species, known as Macrorhinns 

 angustirostris, ma\' be considered practically extinct, although a 

 few stragglers were taken in 1904 by Capt. J. R. MuUett, of 

 Monterey, California. The sea-elephant is the largest of the 

 pinnipeds, old males sometimes exceeding a length of twenty feet. 



Walrus. — The walrus [Odohciius), which is of circumpolar 

 distribution, is another pinniped which has been exterminated in 

 all of its more accessible resorts. It is now obtained only in its 

 scattered hiding places in the Arctic. In 1899 there were impor- 

 tant numbers in Bering Sea along the north shore of the Alaska 

 peninsula, where the writer met with a vessel which had killed 

 1,600. The walrus is now seldom seen in that region. A cen- 

 tury ago the walrus was sometimes found as far south as the St. 

 Lawrence River in the Atlantic. Walrus ivory continues to 

 reach the world's markets, but the supply in quantities of com- 

 mercial importance can no longer be depended upon. 



West-Indian Seal. — The West-Indian seal (Monachus tropic- 

 alis) was formerly abundant in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf 

 of Mexico, extending northeastward to the Florida Keys and the 

 Bahama Islands. This species, valuable for its oil, was prac- 

 tically exterminated over one hundred years ago. A few indi- 

 viduals of the race still linger on the Triangle Islands in the 

 Gulf of Canipeachy. where occasional specimens are procured 

 for museum ])urposes. A seal of this species lived five-and-a-half 

 years in the New York Aquarium. 



Antarctic Seals. — The various species of Antarctic fur seals 

 (Genus Arctocephaliis). were found about the southern shores 



