436 HISTORY AXD METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



Males alone have an elongated snout or proboscis, which has given this species of seals the name 

 of sea-elephants. When the bulls first land they are very fat, some of them yielding about 4 barrels 

 of oil, but after remaining on shore for months and abstaining from food they are very lean and 

 emaciated, and yield scarcely more than 30 gallons. 



" The teeth of sea-elephants," says Lanman, " are short and deeply rooted, the molars small 

 and pointed, and the caverns very large, and the power of their jaws so great that an angry bull 

 has been known to seize a dead comrade, weighing a ton, and toss him a considerable distance, as 

 a dog would a mouse. 



" When quite young they are called silver-gray pups, from their color, but as they mature 

 they become brown, the males inclining to a dark blue, and the females to a yellow shade; their 

 home is the sea, but they have a fashion of spending much of their time upon the shore, occasion- 

 ally going inland 2 or 3 miles, and luxuriating in fresh-water marshes." * 



The sea-elephants annually haul up in herds upon the sandy beaches of barren islands. Their 

 habits are in many respects similiar to the fur-seal, and the periods spent on land are divided into 

 the bull, pupping-cow, brown cow, bull and cow, and March bull seasons. In the early part of Sep- 

 tember the bulls approach the shore and are soon followed by the cows, when the pupping season 

 begins. About the middle if December, the young being old enough to take the water, the whole 

 breeding herd leaves the shore. By the 1st of January, the yearlings, accompanied by a few 

 females, called brown cows, come on shore to renew their coats. In February the full grown males 

 and females do the same, and by the 1st of May all, both young and old, have disappeared. 



This animal produces nothing of commercial importance but the oil. The hide is porous, like 

 pig skin, and is not utilized except by the sealers for coverings to their huts. The sealers often 

 use the meat for food. The season for taking the sea-elephant at Heard's Island commences about 

 the middle of October. They are then quite numerous, and will not leave the beaches. When the 

 season begins, casks and camp equipage are transferred from the larger vessel to the tender. 

 The tender then cruises along shore and on favorable beaches, where the surf will permit their 

 landings, boat crews of seven men each are set ashore, furnished with implements of capture. 

 At a place near the shore try-works are set up and a hut built for the accornodation of the 

 men. One set of try-works is usually enough for all the boat crews who bring the blubber to the 

 rendezvous. The huts are often of the rudest sort, being made of stone and covered with sea- 

 elephant hides. Sticks are taken for hut poles. At Desolation the blubber is taken off to the 

 vessel to be tried out, but at Heard's Island this work is more frequently done on shore. 



In the capture of sea-elephants it is the custom of the sealers to go in the midst of a herd of 

 the animals as they lie sleeping upon the sandy shores, and with a stout oak club strike the young 

 animals upon the head, stunning them so that they are easily killed by thrusting a lance in their 

 side. The young ones are thus easily dispatched and the larger animals are generally docile and 

 killed without difficulty with the lance, though the great bulls must be killed witli a rifle. The 

 sealer advancing in front of an animal to within a few paces, it will rise on the fore flippers and 

 at the same time open the mouth widely to send forth a loud roar ; this is the moment to discharge 

 the ball through the roof of the upper jaw into the brains, whereupon the creature falls forward, 

 either killed or so much stunned as to give the sealer sufficient time to complete the destruction 

 with the lance. 



Having killed as many as can be conveniently cared for at the time, the men proceed to skin 

 the animals and take the blubber. . For this work they use a ripping knife with 10-inch blade. 

 The skin is first removed and then the blubber is stripped from the meat, in what are called "horse 



* CHAHLBS LxjfMAN, in Forest and Stream, January 2, 1879. 



