GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF SEALS. 409 



three years old ; for, living upon mollusca principally, it cannot 

 get its own living until its tusks have grown a certain length, 

 to enable it to dig for them itself. 



Besides a great number caught locally by the native Esqui- 

 maux in America, and Tchuckchees and other tribes inhabiting 

 the north shores of Europe and Asia, there are two large Seal 

 "fisheries" carried on in the North Atlantic; one, a small area 

 about 200 miles N.E. from Jan Mayen's Island (about the middle 

 of April), where annually some 200,000 are killed. The majority 

 of these are young Greenland Seals. Their rapid increase in 

 size is remarkable ; at birth their weight is 6 or 8 lb. ; they are 

 suckled for fifteen or eighteen days, in which time they increase 

 to from 55 to 60 5b., of which the skin and fat — alone the object 

 of pursuit — is about 40 or 45 lb. It is at this age that the 

 sealers prefer to take them, as they are then left by their mothers 

 to shift for themselves, and consequently for some time they 

 deteriorate in condition. 



Another great breeding station is on the loose ice off the 

 coast of Newfoundland, where the season begins about the 

 middle of March, and lasts for two months. About 500,000 are 

 annually taken here. 



In the Pacific, South Atlantic, and South Indian Oceans the 

 only true Seal that has been found in sufficient numbers to form 

 a regular "fishery" is the Sea Elephant. This immense beast 

 is described by the first observers, Peron, Anson, Pernety, and 

 others as from 25 to 30 ft. in length, with a circumference of 

 16 to 18 ft. Modern observers do not find them of this size ; 

 but as two authentic skeletons measured 16 ft., which would 

 make the animal when in the flesh about 22 or 23 ft. long, it is 

 probable that the systematic hunting to which they have been 

 subjected, does not allow them to attain their full growth. This 

 species was formerly found by Peron in large numbers on the 

 Falkland Islands, where it is now extinct, and along the west 

 coast of Patagonia. It was also taken in large numbers off the 

 coast of Mexico and Lower California. Mr. Allen thinks this a 

 distinct species ; it is said to occur still in small numbers at 

 St. Barbara and Cerros Islands, in this locality. In the South 

 Indian Ocean, the Crozets, Kerguelen and Heard Islands used to 

 be regular stations for these Seals ; but they are probably only 

 to be found in any great numbers now on Heard Islands. In 



