THE SEALS OF THE WEDDELL SEA. 189 



to land would enable the mothers, in the event of the floe breaking up prematurely, to 

 save their young at an age when they cannot swim. 



In the last days of August the first young were born. Each mother has one pup, 

 which at birth measures from 2^ to 3^ feet in length. They are born with their eyes 

 open. The young have soft grey downy coats, with no suggestion of the coarse hairs 

 of the adult skin, nor any of its mottled markings. They have the usual disproportion- 

 ate head, and their flippers, especially the hind ones, are well developed and out of pro- 

 portion to the rest of the body. The eyes are large, brown, and slightly bloodshot in 

 the white. The baby moves in the same way as its parent, by drawing itself forward 

 with the help of the fore-flippers, and then dragging onward the hinder part of the 

 body ; but naturally the movements are slow, and in following its mother any distance 

 it has to rest every few yards. The mother lies alternately on one side or another 

 while suckling the pup, and often seems to shelter it by lying to windward. Sometimes 

 a mother plays with her young as well as such clumsy animals can, and at times one 

 saw a mother presumably caressing her baby by pressing her nose against the young 

 one's side. The cry of the pup is something like the bleating of a lamb, but strangely 

 human at times. 



The altruism of maternity awakens the mother at this season to an alert and fero- 

 cious animal who savagely resents any approach to the pup a great change from the 

 sleepy placidity of other seasons. It was only rarely that a cowardly or indifferent 

 mother was met with. The capture of a young one, without the sacrifice of the mother, 

 consequently entailed a certain amount of strategy. The mother places herself between 

 the aggressor and her baby, and heroically endeavours to defend it. On one occasion 

 when the young had been secured the mother made good her escape by plunging down 

 a seal-hole, but at other times the mother remained on the floes, no doubt bewailing 

 her lot in the peculiar hoarse roar which is heard only at the breeding-season. On 

 another occasion a mother, on seeing our approach to close quarters, made no attempt 

 to drive us away, but instead attacked her pup, giving it several bites about the head 

 and neck. Finally she seized it in her mouth and shook it as a dog might worry a 

 rat. The pup was badly mauled, and would probably have been killed had we not 

 separated the two. The deep roar of the mother at this season replaces the hoarse 

 rattling cuckle, and occasionally is accompanied, in anger, by foaming at the mouth. 

 Males were not seen at the rookeries or on the floe until September 21st, that is, three 

 weeks after the pupping commenced, when one or two began to appear, but they 

 remained rare for some time. In no case was a mother with more than one pup noticed, 

 and by the end of September all the young were born. The mothers who were robbed 

 of their young sometimes remained on the rookeries for days before departing. At this 

 season they probably do not feel hunger, as they are thickly coated with blubber when 

 they reach the rookeries, and on this they have to subsist for about four or five weeks 

 until the young are ready to take to the water. No instance was noticed of a mother 

 leaving her young earlier and going into the sea to feed. 



