StEPHiNTi-SEALS OP KERfettELM tAND. 441 



been savage, bout after bout having been fought, according to 

 the testimony of the men from the whaling station, who had been 

 deputed to make tours in one of the motor boats of the Kerguelen 

 Whaling Company, to observe the seals. The two rivals had 

 kept up the contest for nearly 40 minutes, and the beachmaster 

 was at last vanquished. He was almost unable to move, and one 

 of the incisor teeth had gone, the jaws of the combata-nts having 

 become interlocked, and only released by the snapping of the 

 incisor of the beachmaster. Gashed and streaming with blood, 

 the defeated Sultan then dr?igged himself painfully to the beach, 

 and dived into the water, the wake of the animal as he swam 

 away being crimson-red. The victorious bull, who looked only a 

 degree less frightful than his late opponent, had taken possession 

 of the harem, that is, he simply dragged himself in among the 

 dams, being almost spent, and went to sleep at once. Some 

 hours later, the motor boat having in the meantime visited other 

 harems, the bull was observed to have recovered his mettle, and 

 was on the qui vive when the boat appeared, though no pairing 

 took place as the men passed the beach on returning to the 

 whaling factory. 



The Sultan of Swain's Haulover had also had his hands full in 

 coping with the exigencies of the situation ; but had come out 

 victorious in all contests, although one was almost a draw. Had 

 he been obliged to wage a similar combat soon after, the men 

 opined, he would hardly have come out of the battle with the 

 palm of victory. 



What may be termed the rutting period of the Elephant-Seals 

 began on the 16th of October, when the inexplicable commotion 

 among the seals in Thunder Harbour was noticed, though it 

 may have commenced two to three days earlier, and it lasted 

 until all the dams in each harem had been satisfied. The mature 

 bachelor bulls, compelled by the pairing instinct, came to contest 

 the supremacy of the beachmasters, who by right of superior 

 strength and size, and by right of conquest of course, had 

 occupied the beaches and were harem-masters. The dams in each 

 harem requested the service of their masters at different times, 

 and not simultaneously, every dam being served only once. 

 They evidently roused the pairing instinct of their respective 

 masters by emitting a distinctive odour, imperceptible to the 

 human sense of smell, and a call, which also reached the water- 

 bulls, equally possessed with the pairing instinct, and wdiich 

 drove them to frenzy. 



During the rutting period it was seen that the beachmasters 

 received the call not only from mature cows, with or without a 

 pup, but also from what appeared to us to be immature females. 

 These females were of an almost uniform size, not more than 

 eight feet in length, of a slender shape, and born during the last 

 week of September of the previous year. These female Elephant- 

 Seals when slightly more than a year old are then in heat and 



