i 9 o 4 ] CAPTURE OF A SEA ELEPHANT 247 



long spell at the Cape Royds camp, and told me all about his 

 great capture. It appears that one day he strolled over to the 

 north beach to see what he at first took for a prodigiously 

 large seal lying asleep on it. As he got closer he saw, however, 

 that the animal was quite different from any of the ordinary 

 Southern seals, and his excitement can be imagined. Two of 

 the " Morning " officers were in camp with him, and when 

 Wilson had seized the gun the three proceeded to stalk this 

 strange new beast. Their great fear was that they might only 

 succeed in wounding it, and that it would escape into the sea, 

 so in spite of the temperature of the water they waded well 

 round it before they attacked. These tactics proved quite 

 successful, and their quarry was soon despatched, but it was 

 far too heavy for them to move or for Wilson to examine 

 where it lay. The following day, however, Colbeck came over 

 in the " Morning," and with the aid of boats and ropes the 

 carcase was eventually landed on his decks. 



1 On close examination Wilson came to the conclusion that 

 the animal is a sea-elephant of the species commonly found at 

 Macquarie Island, but this is the first time that such a beast 

 has been found within the Antarctic Circle : and that it should 

 now have been captured so many hundreds of miles beyond is 

 a very extraordinary circumstance. The sea-elephant is, I 

 believe, a vegetarian ; the stomach of this one was empty.' 



I may remark that we got to know this particular sea 

 elephant very well. As a rule, skeletons which are bound for 

 the British Museum are not cleaned until they arrive on the 

 premises, in order that there may be no difficulty in reassem- 

 bling the parts. In accordance with this custom, the skeleton of 

 this animal was carried on the skid beam of the ' Discovery ' in 

 a partially stripped state. All went well until we arrived in the 

 tropics, but after that we had no chance of forgetting that we 

 carried the remains of a sea elephant. Shift it from place to 

 place as we would, it made its presence felt everywhere. In 

 the end the Museum came very close to losing a specimen, 

 and I doubt if it possesses many that have caused more woe. 



1 January 23. — Since the start of our transporting work 



