December 1, 1893.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



223 



pack, all hands are ready to take part in the fray. The 

 sails are stowed ; the skipper sits in tho crow's nest from 

 early in the morning till late in the evening ; the two 



Soa-Leopards on p:u'k ice. 



engineers, relieving one another, take charge of the 

 engines ; the cook or the steward is on the look-out ; some 

 non-combatant takes the helm ; all the rest are away after 

 plunder in the boats. Now a full boat is making its way 

 to the ship. She steams towards it. As she nears, the 

 engines are stopped and the boat glides alongside. The cook 

 or the steward rushes from the look-out, the helmsman from 

 the wheel, one working the steam winch and the other 

 unswitching the skins, while the boat's crew swallow a 

 hasty meal. Their boat being unloaded, they are off again 

 for another fill. Another boat is seen approaching, and 

 away the ship goes again, dodging this piece of ice, charg- 

 ing that piece with her sturdy bows, boring away where 

 the ice lies closely packed, rounding this berg, and on to 

 the next, until she reaches the boat, which is down to the 

 gunwale in the water, with its crew cautious, plying their 

 oars as they lie crouched upon their bloody load. So it 

 goes on from day to day; "hay is made while the sun 

 shines," and the pile of skins and blubber rises high upon 

 the ship's deck. Then comes a gale of wind, accompanied 

 by fog, sleet and snow, and the ship " lays to" under lee 

 of a stream of pack ice or a berg. The deck becomes busy 

 with life ; the blubber is "made off," and put into the 

 tanks, and the skins are salted. During such inclement 

 weather the seals do not seek the ice, but may be seen 

 swimming about in the water. When the gale is over, at 

 the end of two or three days, the next few days of calm 

 weather are again taken advantage of to continue the 

 slaughter. Thus the periods of gales and calms, which 

 alternate in this part of the world, come in conveniently 

 for sealing : the produce obtained in the calm weather 

 being " made oft'" during the gales. 



Concerning the habits and anatomy of these seals much 

 remains to be investigated. During the summer months 

 (December, .January, February), as has already been stated 

 above, the first four are to be found on the pack ice, where, 

 during the day, they bask in the sun, digesting the meal 

 of the previous night. Their food consists of fish or 

 shrimp-like crustaceans, and sometimes of penguins. 

 Stones, which were probably first swallowed by the pen- 

 guins, may also be found in their stomachs. They become 

 so lazy with sleep that a man may dig them in the ribs 

 with the muzzle of his gun, and wondering what it is 

 disturbing their slumbers they raise their head, which 

 quickly falls pierced with a bullet. There may only be 

 one seal on a piece of ice, which is usually the case with the 

 sea-leopard seals, but the smaller kinds lie in half-dozens 

 and tens, and as many as forty-seven were seen on one piece 

 durmg the recent cruise. On one occasion several seals were 

 found upon a tilted berg ; so high was the lowest edge above 

 the surface of the water that the boat's crew with difficulty 

 clambered up and secured their prey. Yet the seals must 



have made a leap from the water on to this their last 

 resting-place. December seems to be their mating season ; 

 about that time they are in very poor condition, and very 

 much scarred. Tho females appear to be as freely scarred 

 as the males. It was also noted that the seals were most 

 numerous where the water was bluest and clearest — this 

 in all probability, meaning that they w^ere more numerous 

 ou the outside of the pack, since the muddy olive-brown 

 colour of the water, due to con'thrun dlatotns, seen so 

 frequently in the south polar seas, seems to indicate 

 proximity to the main pack. The males appear to be as 

 numerous as the females, and, in the case of the sea- 

 leopard seal and Weddell's seal at least, the males are 

 perhaps rather smaller than the females. 



They move swiftly through the water, and can throw 

 themselves eight or nine feet above the surface, covering 

 distances of fully twenty feet. Their moaning in the 

 gloaming of a calm grey day comes as a weird sound 

 through the haze, and makes the icy solitude more lonely, 

 adding awe to a scene already full of fascination ! They 

 seem to wonder at man, and not recognizing him as an 

 enemy they allow him to approach, only to be laid low 

 with club or bullet. It is a matter of great regret that 

 they should be so indiscriminately massacred ; there is no 

 regard for sex or age, and even females heavy with young 

 do not escape. If Heets of sealers continue to visit the 

 south, there should be some law of protection, otherwise 

 there is no doubt that, like the southern fur-seals at the 

 beginning of the century, these Antarctic seals will be 

 exterminated. 



THE COFFIN OF THE BUILDER OF THE 

 THIRD PYRAMID. 



By P. W. Read. 



THE coffin and bones of Menkaura, which stand near 

 the entrance to the First Egyptian Room in the 

 British Museum, have been for upwards of half a 

 century exhibits of the greatest interest to students 

 of the ancient world. They have recently, how- 

 ever, been invested with a new interest of quite another 

 kind, by the supposed discovery of one of the younger 

 generation of German Egyptologists. We are invited, 

 in fact, to transfer the date of the coffin from the fourth 

 to the twenty-sixth dynasty, a difference of from two 

 thousand to three thousand years. But before entering 

 upon an explanation of the new view, it may be well to 

 give some slight account of the finding of these famous 

 remains, and the opinions hitherto held in regard to them. 

 The three principal- pyramids, which were built on a 

 rocky plateau to the west of Memphis, are assigned by 

 Herodotus to three successive monarchs named Cheops, 

 Chephreu, and Mykerinos. This is one of the few instances 

 in which " the Father of History" seems to have lighted 

 upon a genuine tradition. The building of those three 

 gigantic pyramids marked an epoch in the history of the 

 country, and must have profoundly impressed the imagina- 

 tion of the people ; and this may perhaps account for the 

 truth having reached the ignorant temple attendants from 

 whom Herodotus appears to have derived his information. 

 The three monarchs in question bore the native names of 

 Khufu, Khafra, and Menkaura ; and their succession is 

 proved beyond doubt by the Egyptian monuments. First, 

 by the inscriptions in certain tombs, which give us 

 the names of the successive monarchs in whose reigns 

 the occupants of the tombs lived. Secondly, by the 

 lists of kings which the sovereigns of the new empire 

 set up to the honour of their ancestors. The connection 



