TIIK III; SKAI.: SI/K. AM) CKNKUAI. IMSToKY. 51 



1 1. .us ;i.s being MS regular as those of tin- \ arm us kinds of sea fowl, and they arc rccoidcd as .irriving 

 with great regularity at the I'ribylov Islands, but where they pass the season of winter is still a 

 in, liter of conjecture. 



Si/.i:. Mi. F.lliott has given d table showing the weight, size, aiid rate of growth of tlio Fur 

 s-.il. from the age of one week to six years, based ou actual weight and measurement, with an 

 estimate.of the si/.c and weight of specimens from eight to twenty years of age. From this table 

 it appears that the pups when a week old have a length of from twelve to fourteen inches, and a 

 weight of six to seven and a half pounds. At six months old the length is two feet and the weight 

 about thirty pounds. At one year the average length of six examples was found to be thirty-eight 

 inches, and the weight thirty-nine pounds, the males and females at this time being alike iu size 

 The average weight of thirty males at the age of two years is given as fifty-eight pounds, and the 

 length as forty live inches. Thirty-two males at the age of three years were found to give uu 

 average weight of eighty-seven pounds, and an average length of fifty-two inches. Ten males at 

 the age of four averaged one hundred and thirty-five pounds in weight, and fifty -eight inches in 

 length. A mean of five examples five years old is : weight, two hundred pounds; length, sixty-five 

 in. hes. Three males at six years gave a weight of two bundled and eighty pounds, and a length 

 of six feet. The estimated average weight of males from eight years and upward, when fat, is 

 given as four hundred to five hundred pounds, and the average length as six feet three inches 

 to six feet eight inches. Mr. Elliott further adds that the average weight of the female is from 

 eighty to eighty-five pounds, but that they range in weight from seventy five to one hundred and 

 twenty pounds, and that the five and six year old males, on their first appearance in May and 

 June, when fat and fresh, may weigh a third more than in July, or at the time those mentioned in 

 the table were weighed, which would thus indicate an average maximum weight of about three 

 hundred and seventy-five pounds for the six-year-old males. According, however, to my own 

 measurements of old males, from mounted and unmounted specimens, the length is between seven 

 and eight feet, and of a full grown female about four feet. Captain Bryant states that the males 

 attain mature si/e at about the sixth year, when their total length is from seven to eight feet, their 

 girth six tu seven feet, and their weight, when in full flesh, from five to seven hundred pounds. 

 The females, he says, are full grown at four years old, when they measure four feet in length, two 

 ami a half in girth, and weigh eighty to one hundred ]x>uuds. The yearlings, he says, weigh from 

 thirty to forty pounds. The relative size of the adults of both sexes and the young in well shown 

 iu the accompanying illustration drawn by Mr. Elliott. 



(ir.NKUAL HISTORY. The northern Fur Seal was first made known to science by Steller, in 

 1751, under tJie name of Urnua marinm. During his visit to Kamtchatka and its neighboring 

 islands, in 1742, he met with these animals in great numbers at Bering's Island, where he spent 

 some time among them, and carefully studied their lutbits and anatomy, a detailed account of 

 which appeared in his celebrated memoir entitled "De Bestiis Marinis," in the Transactions of the 

 Saint Petersburg Academy for the year 1749.' This important essay was the source of nearly all of 

 the accounts of this animal that appeared prior to the beginning of the present decade. The 

 twenty eight quarto pages of Steller's memoir devoted to this species gave not only a detailed 

 account of its anatomy, with an extensive table of measurements, but also of its remarkable habits, 

 and figures of the animals themselves. A little later Krascheninikow, in his History of Kami 

 ehatka,-' under the name of "Sea Cat," gave also a long account of its habits, apparently baaed 



'Nov. Cumin. A rail. Pet nip., ii. jip. :>:il-:i.>'.l. pi. xv, IT.'il. Thin, an in well known, is a |>H||I unions pnpcr, pub- 

 lished six \eais :ili. -i Seller's death, Sicllrr living nt'lVv.T November Ii, IT I."., while on Ins way from Siberia to Saint 



. '1 lie ilc scrip: ion nl'ilie Sea Itear was written at lierin^'M Inland in May. l"4i. 

 'Hist. Kan.tehatka (Kuglwh edition), traiwlateil liom thr Knssian liy Janiea Grieve, pp. I23-13U, 1764. 



