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PLATE LXXXVL THE WEDDELL SEAL AND ITS YOUNG. 



FIG. 1. From a photograph by Mr FORD (Fo. 102, ^-plate) ; taken in M'Murdo 

 Sound, Oct. 26, 1902. 



FIG. 2. From a photograph by E. W. SKELTON (Sk. 267, -plate) ; taken in 

 M'Murdo Sound, Oct. 8, 1903. 



The Weddell Seal owes much of its safety to retiring habits. It lives entirely 

 along the coast, and produces its young as far as possible from open water. At 

 Pram Point, for example, where these two photographs were taken, the colony of 

 Seals was some 15 or 20 miles from the nearest open water, yet the sea, though 

 frozen over, was full of fish, and was easily entered by cracks and blowholes. A 

 large number of young Weddells was produced amongst these pressure-ridges 

 each year, about the third week in October. 



See Nat. Hit. Rep., vol. ii., Mammals, p. 18. 





