756 MR. J. W. CLARK ON THE EARED [Nov. 18, 



plication from Captain Musgrave's account ; for he nowhere mentions 

 using seal-skins for warm clothing, though he suffered much from 

 cold ; but he does speak of the excellent leather he thinks might be 

 made out of the skin of the Sea-lion (p. 81). 



Turning now to the skulls, I find that the two smaller ones cor- 

 respond exactly with those named Arctocephalus hookeri by Dr. 

 Gray in the Zoology of the voyage of the ' Erebus ' and ' Terror'* . 

 I have compared them with the type specimen, and with the others 

 preserved in the British Museum, all of which were, I understand, 

 brought home by Sir J. C. Ross's Antarctic Expedition. The cor- 

 respondence is more complete than would be imagined from a mere 

 inspection of the plate ; for a line drawn across the hinder edge of 

 the zygomatic process of the maxilla ought to pass through the 

 centre of the penultimate molar, whereas in the plate such a line 

 would pass between that tooth and the last of the series. 



Before considering these skulls more minutely, let us pass to the 

 large skull labelled " male adulte," and I think we shall find that 

 they all have certain very marked characteristics in common. No 

 one who looks at this skull (see figures pp. 754 and 755) can fail, 

 I think, to be at once struck by two points in its conformation : — its 

 great length in proportion to its width, so that it closely resembles 

 the skull of a Polar Bear ; and the length, the massiveness, and the 

 uniform vertical height of the lower jaw. It measures 13" in 

 length, by 7|" in width (the latter measurement being taken across 

 the zygomatic process of the squamosal) ; that is to say, the 

 length : width : : 2 : 1 nearly, while in a series of skulls of Otaria 

 jubata the length : width : : 3 : 2. The lower jaw is 9|" long, 2j" 

 in height immediately behind the canine, and 2iy" behind the last 

 molar. The same characters, relatively, are to be found in the 

 smaller skulls : they exhibit similar relations of length to width, and 

 the lower jaws are equally long and of equally uniform height. 



On reversing the male skull the palate is seen to be deeply hol- 

 lowed out in front, and to narrow gradually behind the zygoma, 

 becoming at the same time nearly flat. The palatine bones are, in 

 consequence of the great length of the skull, much elongated, and 

 remarkably curved, thickened, and bent outwards at their posterior 

 extremity. The pterygoid plate of the alisphenoid is, for the same 

 reasons, a very long and stout pillar of bone, pierced by a wide 

 alisphenoid canal. The pterygoids themselves are small ; but in this 

 specimen they are so broken that their precise form is difficult to 

 distinguish. The palatine opening is long and narrow. 



The mastoid portion of the periotic is produced into a long prg- 

 like process ; and there is no union between the periotic and the 

 basioccipital. The foramen lacerum posterius is confluent with the 

 foramen lacerum medium. 



If we now look at the two smaller skulls we shall see that the 

 palates are equally concave, that they narrow and become flat at the 

 same point, that the palatines and pterygoids are similarly elon- 

 gated and are of like shape. The palatine opening is proportionally 

 * Page 4, Beasts, plate xv. (skull). 



