THE SEALS OF THE WEDDELL SEA. 187 



name of Sea-lion, with its creditable mane and its habit of emitting a deep roar as it 

 rears itself on its fore-flippers. The one secured, a male, measured 10 ft. 8 ins. over 

 all, and scaled over 1200 Ibs. 



The chief importance of the Scotia collections lies in the large number of skins and 

 skeletons brought home, as well as two injected specimens of young Weddell Seals. 

 The anatomy of the Weddell Seal and the skeletons of this and other species are dealt 

 with elsewhere in this series of volumes. The notes in this paper deal with the dis- 

 tribution and habits of the seals observed in the Weddell Sea. In addition to observa- 

 tions made by the naturalists of the Scotia, I have included various notes made by 

 Dr W. S. Bruce during the cruise of the Dundee whaler Balaena to the western Weddell 

 Sea in 1892-93, since these deal with the same area of Antarctic seas and supplement 

 the observations of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition. It may be added that 

 a complete set of skins collected by the Scotia is now in the Royal Scottish Museum, 

 Edinburgh. Others have been distributed to the museums of Glasgow, Aberdeen, 

 Dundee, Paisley, Perth, and Monaco : a few are in the museum of the Scottish Oceano- 

 graphical Laboratory. The skulls and skeletons are in the Scottish Oceanographical 

 Museum and the museums of the universities of Scotland, the type collection being 

 in the Anatomical Museum of the University of Edinburgh. 



Leptonychotes weddelli (Lesson) the Weddell Seal. 



Both at the South Orkneys and at Coats Land this was the commonest species we 

 encountered, and one which we had facilities for studying better than others. Fifteen 

 years ago it was one of the rarest of known mammals, despite its extraordinary abund- 

 ance in the Antarctic. 



While it is very plentiful near land, it is never found in large numbers in the open pack 

 far from the shore : in this it contrasts with the Lobodon. No recent expedition in 

 any part of the Antarctic has found the Weddell Seal to be rare, and its previous rarity 

 was solely due to the want of expeditions for a long period, and the little careful 

 coastal exploration that had ever been conducted until the days of the Belgica. In 

 fact, the Weddell Seal haunts the coast and adjacent pack to such an extent that its 

 presence may almost be taken as an indication of the proximity of land. 



While during the winter at the South Orkneys some of these seals undoubtedly 

 deserted the floe for the edge of the pack, many, on the other hand, remained. In every 

 winter month at the South Orkneys a certain number, principally males, were seen, 

 and numerous seal-holes were noticed in the ice. Dr Nordenskjold found them common 

 during the winter at Snow Hill (1902-1903), and Dr Charcot likewise records them as 

 occurring during winter around Petermann Island (1909), sometimes singly, sometimes 

 in groups. But none of these localities are far from the edge of the pack. However, this 

 species, of all Antarctic ones, goes furthest from the open water, and makes use of holes 

 in the ice for breathing purposes to an extent that other species do not. 



