OCEANIC MAMMALS 457 



sealing expeditions have been made among the islands to the 

 west of Kauai. Of these the most notable was in 1859 when the 

 Gambia returned to Honolulu with 1,500 skins and 240 barrels 

 of seal oil, thus furnishing some idea of the numbers of this seal 

 that must then have been present. A few further details are 

 furnished by Atkinson and Bryan (1914), who report that a 

 J. J. Williams in 1893 found these seals at French Frigate Shoals 

 and had heard of an expedition killing as many as 60 or 70 on 

 Laysan. About this island, however, they are rare now and 

 are hard to see in the water, and rest far out on the reefs. On 

 Midway Island none was seen by Captain Miller and his crew 

 who were shipwrecked there for 14 months. In 1913 about 35 

 were seen by Governor Frear on Pearl and Hermes reef. 

 Bryan (1915) continues: "Of recent years they have been far 

 from abundant, though seals are regularly reported from 

 Laysan, Lisiansky, Pearl and Hermes Reef, and are occasion- 

 ally seen at Midway. In January, 1912, the U. S. Revenue 

 Cutter Thetis returned from a cruise to Midway and Laysan 

 and brought a seal-skin back which was presented to the 

 Bishop Museum. Baby seals were seen at that time, and it is 

 quite probable that, if not interfered with, the herd will 

 increase in numbers." In 1923 Dr. Alexander Wetmore visited 

 these western Hawaiian Islands and saw seals at Ocean Island 

 and at Pearl and Hermes Reef. The total population was 

 estimated as about 400. A few were collected as specimens. 

 It is possible that a good many of these seals have been poached 

 in times past, as the breeding albatrosses have been by the 

 Japanese. This has now been put an end to, and this seal is 

 included on the list of mammals for which special protection 

 is to be recommended. 



Ross's SEAL 



OMMATOPHOCA ROSSII Gray 



Ommatophoca rossii Gray, Zool. Voyage Erebus and Terror, pp. 7-8, pis. 7, 8, 1844 



("Antarctic Ocean"). 

 FIGS.: Barrett-Hamilton, 1901, plate (skull); Brown, R. N. R.> 1913, pi. 3, fig. 1 



(photograph); Wilson, E. A., 1907, figs. 27-29, p. 44 (photographs). 



Ross's seal is so rare in collections and is so little known that 

 it may perhaps be a "vanishing" species, with restricted range 

 and very specialized habits, traits that often go with perilous 

 status. 



Of the various seals of the Antarctic this is the smallest, 



