1912] Townsend: Northern Elephant Seal. 173 



to yield information on some features of its natural history which 

 have hitherto been obscure. The following points may be noted : 



The northern species is unquestionably distinct. 



It now breeds only at Guadalupe Island and there are prob- 

 ably about 150 of the animals in existence. 



The trunk of the adult male eighteen feet long, has a length 

 of nine or ten inches forward from the canine teeth. 



The trunk is not capable of inflation, but is retracted into 

 heavy folds on top of the head by muscular action. 



The breeding season begins a few days before March first 

 and the period of gestation is twelve months. 



The color of the young at birth is black. 



The yearling emits a call or scream unlike the voice of any 

 other seal. 



The food preferred by the yearling and two-year-old in cap- 

 tivity is fish. 



The yearling and two-year-old frequently lift the head and 

 the hind flippers above the back until they nearly meet. 



Note, — I have recently found in Blackwood's Magazine for December, 1818, some 

 interesting information about the elephant seal of Tristan-da-Cunha Island, which 

 lies in mid Atlantic in the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope. The article con- 

 tains a letter written at Tristan-da-Cunha in 1811 by J. Lambert, from which I 

 quote the following: "Sea-elephants . . . are plenty and they pup yearly, coming 

 up in the months of August and September for that purpose. About a month or 

 five weeks they take the male and then go off to feed, and in six weeks come up 

 and remain a month of two to shed their old coat and get a new one, and from 

 that time are for the most part lying in the sun asleep. 



"The males, however, stay off longer, as they of course require a longer period 

 to feed. Their food is chiefly kelp, but I have found squid in their stomach. . . . 

 This last season I think 1,000 pups were brought forth on this island, and as many 

 more on the other two, and I suppose when I passed near those islands they must 

 have been almost inmmierable, seeing some parties or other have been oiling here 

 ever since and so many yet remain. If they are not disturbed for two or three 

 years, the increase must be great and profitable, especially if their skins are at- 

 tended to and salted. 



"We have kiUed about eighty since we landed, and suppose we shall kill about 

 two a week through the year. We have made about 1,000 gallons of oil. . . . 

 The elephant in general makes about a barrel of oil, though some of the males will 

 produce 100 gallons; of course there would be as many skins as barrels of oil, 

 besides, at least, 1,000 pup skins, which are very fine and pretty, and would no 

 doubt average a dollar each." 



The Challenger Expedition did not find the elephant seal at Tristan-da-Cunha 

 in 1873, tiie last having been seen, according to Moseley, "two years before." 



