1912] Townsend: Northern Elephant Seal. 161 



reached the so-called Elephant Beach under the cliffs on the 

 northwest side. According to Captain Hunt of the schooner 

 Santa Barbara, eighty elephant seals were found on this beach 

 in 1883. Here we found eight elephant seals, seven of which 

 were killed, but the weather conditions becoming suddenly un- 

 favorable and the landing dangerous, we were compelled to 

 abandon four of these. At that time. May 23, the larger ani- 

 mals were shedding their hair. 



The fur seal obtained at this island proved to be a new 

 species of the Antarctic genus and was described as Arctocepha- 

 lus townsendi by Merriam. 



Captain J. R. Mullett of Monterey, California, is said to have 

 obtained a few specimens of the elephant seal in 1904, presum- 

 ably at Guadalupe. In 1907 Mr. Charles Harris visited Guada- 

 lupe Island in the interest of the Hon. Walter Rothschild, remain- 

 ing from June 2 to 13. He found about forty elephant seals and 

 obtained fourteen specimens, four of which were lost in the surf.* 



For many years no reports have been received from San 

 Cristobal Bay and other points in Lower California formerly in- 

 habited by the elephant seal, and there has been no further ac- 

 count of the small herd found at Guadalupe Island in 1907. As 

 Lower California is sometimes visited by parties in small vessels 

 in search of sea-lions which are killed for their hides and oil, 

 naturalists had little hope of its continued existence, and the 

 recent discovery of a herd of considerable size was a matter of 

 surprise and great zoological interest. 



Rediscovery in 1911. 



During the winter of 1911 while in charge of the deep sea 

 investigations of the United States Steamship Albatross in the 

 Lower California region, I called at Guadalupe Island and was 

 fortunate enough to secure the specimens, photographs and data 

 upon which the present paper is based. 



We reached Guadalupe on March second, and immediately 

 landed the members of the scientific staff on the east side for a 

 day's collecting and proceeded at once with the ship to the north- 



*Mirownga angustirostris (Gill), by the Hon. Walter Rothschild, Ph. D., 

 Novitates Zoologicae, vol. XV, 1908, p. 393. Mr. Harris also published an account 

 of this trip to Guadalupe Island in the Pacific Monthly for April, 1909, entitled 

 A Cruise After Sea Elephants. 



