466 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



the Kerguelen rookeries. Ring (1923) has given a picture of 

 the life of the elephant seal at Kerguelen 30 years and more 

 ago. He states that in 1905-6, a Norwegian, Capt. C. A. 

 Larsen, established a whale fishery at South Georgia, catching 

 and utilizing elephant seals as a side issue. In 1907 a Nor- 

 wegian steam-sealing factory was set up at the Crozet Islands, 

 and three years later a French floating factory cleared the 

 beaches of the remnant left by the Norwegian vessel. Mean- 

 while, in 1908, a Norwegian company established a whaling 

 factory at Kerguelen, and in the four years succeeding killed 

 such great numbers that their extinction seemed certain. Of 

 the habits of these seals at Kerguelen, where the breeding 

 season lasts from about the middle of October until early 

 April, Ring has given an interesting account of the tremendous 

 noise and confusion attending the pairing season. In 1912-13 

 the Kerguelen Whaling Co. would have had a disastrous season 

 on account of the few whales taken, had it not been able to eke 

 out its catch with elephant-seal oil. "But as a consequence, in 

 1913, there would only be a small remnant of Elephant Seals 

 left to reproduce themselves. How far this remnant has suc- 

 ceeded in recovering if it has been able to recover during 

 the decennium which has passed since the slaughter of the 

 animals ceased, is difficult to conjecture. It is by no means 

 improbable that the existence of these seals has been jeopard- 

 ized through the strain which the stock has suffered during 

 three seasons' intense hunting, as all the large and virile bulls 

 would have been killed on account of the greater yield of 

 blubber ... It was seen by us that as much as 35 per- 

 cent of the pups in a harem succumbed to the dangers of the 

 first voyage of migration. " 



According to Aubert de la Rue (Terres franchises inconnues, 

 1930), the destruction of seals in rather recent years had been 

 considerable there. On the Crozet Islands, too, a similar scene 

 has been enacted. In 1930, according to an account quoted by 

 the Journal for the Protection of the Fauna of the Empire 

 (pt. 12, pp. 14-15, 1930), a vessel visiting these islands found 

 the foreshores "covered with sea elephants." "Just after our 

 arrival there a sailing vessel came in and put ashore a sealing 

 party. The following morning when we visited American Bay 

 it was a mass of bloody carcases. " If this poaching of seals is 

 still going on, it is in direct violation of the decree of the French 



