FAUNA AND FLORA. 269 



Antarctic waters; animals exclusively adapted to life on 

 land do not, and cannot, exist in the Antarctic regions, 

 owing to the absence of all the conditions necessary to 

 their existence. Though Borchgrevingk lately noticed 

 scars of wounds upon some seals, which led him to believe 

 in the existence of some mysterious, powerful beast of 

 prey, it has been most conclusively proved that these 

 wounds were inflicted by the teeth of a ferocious 

 cetacean — the orca gladiator. 



The mammals of the south polar regions are repre- 

 sented by whales and seals, that is, by animals that are 

 either entirely or principally adapted to life in the water. 

 A systematic classification of the whales of the Antarctic 

 waters does not yet exist ; nor is it known to what extent 

 they resemble their northern congeners. Ross's assertion 

 that the Greenland whale {balcena mysticetus), the whale 

 of highest commercial importance, occurs in great 

 numbers in the regions of Ross Sea and of the Dirk 

 Gerritz Archipelago has been confirmed neither by the 

 voyage of the Antarctic to Victoria Land, nor by the 

 voyages of Larsen or the Dundee whalers. All the 

 whales so far seen were Rorquals (finners), which do not 

 repay the trouble of catching. In addition to these 

 mention is made of the bottle-nose whale (hyperoodon 

 bidens) and the orca gladiator, which are seen in large 

 numbers ; but the identity of these animals with northern 

 forms is not satisfactorily established. 



This is true in a still higher degree of the seals, which 

 originally existed in few species but in huge multitudes 

 of individuals — they are in fact the only Antarctic 

 mammals that partially visit the land. The sea-elephant 

 (cystophora proboscidea) is the largest living representa- 

 tive of the true seals ; there are also met with in the 

 Dirk Gerritz Archipelago four species [stenorhynckus 

 leptonyx), Weddell's seal {stenorhynckus Weddelii), the 

 sea-leopard (stenor/iyncus carcinopkagd), and Ross's seal 



