458 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



and it is not often found of a greater length than 7 or 8 feet. 

 "It is a blackish or brownish grey above, and lighter below, 

 with the chin and throat in some quite pale, in others black, 

 and a number of paler streaks pass obliquely backwards along 

 the sides of the neck to the hinder third of the body." The 

 skull is remarkable for its very short muzzle, enormous orbit, 

 and weak dentition. There are four upper incisors, of which 

 the two outer are the larger, and four lower incisors. The 

 cheek teeth are five behind the canine, and form an outwardly 

 bent row. They are usually regarded as comprising four pre- 

 molars and a molar and are two-rooted. The claws of the fore 

 foot are reduced to two or three which are very small. Basal 

 length of skull, to 242 mm.; zygomatic width, 176. 



This seal, so far as known, is confined to the Antarctic 

 Ocean and has not been recorded from the shores of any of the 

 southern continents. Until the voyage of the Belgica at the 

 end of the last century, it was known only from the two speci- 

 mens brought back to the British Museum by the voyage of 

 Sir John Ross, and with no more exact locality than Antarctic 

 Seas. In 1898, the Belgica secured two others in latitude 70 S. 

 and longitude 83-85 E. These were reported upon briefly by 

 Barrett-Hamilton. Since the*n Marr (1935) has mentioned 

 nine records between 1903 and 1907. Rudmose Brown (1913) 

 writes: "We found, as all other Antarctic expeditions have 

 found, that the Ross Seal was the rarest of these four species 

 [of Antarctic seals] and was very infrequently seen . . . [and] 

 despite the frequent expeditions of recent years, still remains 

 one of the rarest of known mammals. It is the only one of the 

 Antarctic seals that is entirely confined to Antarctic seas and 

 which has never been recorded from extra-polar regions. 

 During the voyage of the Scotia the Ross Seal was only seen 

 on five occasions, and on four of these it was among the pack 

 some distance from land." These localities were: Between 

 South Orkneys and Coats Land; Scotia Bay; on the Drygalski 

 Ice Barrier tongue in Victoria Land; Weddell Sea; and Decep- 

 tion Island in the South Shetlands. "Solitary individuals," 

 this author adds, "as in the Weddell Sea, have been recorded 

 by practically all recent expeditions from other parts of the 

 Antarctic, but everywhere the Ross Seal is very rare . . . 

 It is almost certain that the species does not collect in rookeries 

 at the breeding season; probably the young are born on the 



