COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 187 



FURTHER STATEMENTS BY PROFESSOR ALLEN AND 



CAPTAIN BRYANT. 



Professor Allen himself, in an explanatory note to tlie 

 passages just referred to, in confirmation of Bryant's state- 

 ment, writes tlius: 



Steller states that, in tbeimraerons specimenslie dissecterl healways 

 fonud the stomachs empty, and remarks that they take no food dur- 

 ing the several weeks they remain on land. Mr. Ball confirms the 

 same statement in respect to the present species, and Captains Cook, 

 Weddell, and others, who have had opportunities for observing the 

 different sonthern species, affirm the same fact in regard to the latter. 

 Lord .Shuldliam long since stated that the walrus had the same habit, 

 though its annual fast seems somewhat shorter than those of the eared- 

 seals. 



This singular phenomenon of a protracted annual fast during the 

 period of parturition and the nursing of the young — the season 

 216 when most mammals require the most ample sustenance — seems 

 not wholly confined to the walruses and eared-seals. So far 

 as known, however, it is limited to the pinnipedes; and, excepting 

 in the case of a single member, the sea-elephant {Macrorhinus elephan- 

 tinns), to the two above-named families. By some of the old writers 

 the sea-elephant was said to feed spiiringly, at this time, on the grasses 

 and sea-weeds that grew in the vicinity of its breeding-places, but the 

 weight of the evidence in respect to this point seems to indicate that 

 this species i'asts simiLarly to the eared-seals and walruses, during the 

 period it resorts to the laud to bring forth its young. 



* » * * * 



It may be that other species of the earless seals undergo similar 

 fasts, but if so, I have as yet seen no record of the fact. 



Captain Bryant, in his contribution on the habits of the 

 fur-seal, which is in('ori)orated in Professor Allen's later- 

 dated Monograph, does not repeat the observations recorded 

 in his former treatise, but refers to them, and, in regard to 

 the particular subject now in question, clearly shows that 

 he maintained the same position as before. Writing, for 

 instance, of the female fur-seal as follows: 



From that time [i.e., that of impregnation] she lies either sleeping 

 near her young or spends her time floating or playing in the water 

 near the shore, returning occasionally to suckle her pup. 



* * * * * 



The females, after giving birth to their young, temporarily repair "Monograph 

 again to the water, and are thus never all on sliore at once, so that of Korth Ameri- 

 by the end of the season there will be twice as many young seals on can Piunipeds," 

 shore as females. P- •^^^■ 



CONCLUSIONS OF THE BRITISH COMMISSIONERS ON THE 



SUBJECT. 



The British Commissioners, as the result of their investi- 

 gation of this subject, sum up their conclusions in these 

 words : 



It appears to be certain that the mature males doing duty on the p -f i, o 

 breeding rookeries do not feed at all during tbe breeding season, and nii.sxiouers' It 

 that for some time, at least several weeks, after landing, the breeding port, para. 232 

 females do not leave tbe rookery-grounds in search of food. There is 

 no apparent reason why the "holluseliickie,'' or young maL s, siiould 

 not go to sea in quest of fish. Singularly enough, howes er, tliough 

 animals of this class have been killed by hundreds of thousands upon 

 the breeding islands iiuder all conceivable conditions of weaf her, and 

 often within less than an hour of their deportation fiom their hauling- 

 grouuds, the almost universal testimony is to tbe effect that their 

 atomacbs are invariably found to be free from food. 



ni ■ 

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