426 Reports and Proceedings — 



Of the Finnipedia, Seals and Walruses, the Northern Sea Lion, 

 Otaria Stelleri, the largest of the genus, ten feet long, from the- 

 North Pacific, is represented by Otaria j'uhata, the Patagonian and 

 Southern ' Sea Lion,' and some other corresponding species a& 

 0. Californiana (California) and 0. ursina, North Pacific, Prybiloff 

 Island ; 0. piisilla, Cape of Good Hope ; O. Forsteri and others from 

 Australia. The Walrus (Trichechus) is only found in the Arctic 

 seas, North Atlantic, and North Pacific Oceans. The true Seal 

 (Phoca) is common to the North Atlantic and the North Pacific 

 coasts, but does not occur in the Southern Ocean. 



The ' Sea Leopard,' Ogmorhinus, occupies the Antarctic and 

 Southern temperate seas. The Elephant Seal (Macrorhinus) , or Sea- 

 Elephant, the largest of the whole family (twenty feet long), was 

 formerly abundant in the Antarctic seas and also found on the coast 

 of California. The Hon. Walter Kothschild lately obtained one, 

 at great expense, and presented it to the National Museum. 



The Penguins (Impennes) may be said to represent in the 

 Southern Ocean the Auks and Divers of the Northern seas. 



Whether these are all (as the Penguins and Auks are) merely 

 representative forms, or whether they may have in some cases beea 

 able to cross the equatorial region and reach the Arctic from the 

 Antarctic, is an open question. Certain deep-sea water forms of 

 Crustacea may have done so along lines of cold currents in the^ 

 ocean, but this does not so easily explain the presence of shore and 

 surface-dwelling forms of life having a common facies, if not an 

 actual close family relationship. Still, it must be borne in mind 

 that cold polar currents do reach near to the equator on the South 

 American Chilian coast. The Sea Lions and the Elephant Seal- 

 have thus, in all probability, been enabled to " cross the line." 



Antarctica in connection with the neighbouring Land- 

 Areas. — Fifty years ago there were very few men of science bold 

 enough either to suggest or to accept the theory that the geographical 

 distribution of plants and animals had actually commenced far back 

 in past geological time. 



Professor Edward Forbes, S. P. Woodward, Darwin, Wallace, 

 Huxley, Sclater, Blanford, H. 0. Forbes, and others have advocated 

 these views, but they have become greatly modified in our own 

 day since the time at which they were first expressed. 



Australia was deemed to be a survival from the Jurassic period. 

 New Zealand from the Triassic, and so on.^ Australia is now known, 

 to possess representatives of almost every formation from Cambrian 

 and Silurian times to the Tertiary. The fact remains that the 

 flora and fauna of Australia and New Zealand present remarkable 

 characteristics which, until lately, were believed not to exist on any 

 other part of the earth's surface. 



1 The great Struthious (-wingless) birds of New Zealand were formerly supposed to 

 be the descendants of the makers of the tridactyle footprints left upon the slabs of 

 Triassic sandstone in the Connecticut Valley and elsewhere. These footprints have 

 been described by the late Professor 0. C. Marsh, and shown to have been left by 

 bipedal Dinosauriau reptiles, Avhich were living in the Triassic period, before birds 

 had made their appearance. 



