ANOTHER SPRING 467 



not because he seemed afraid of us, but rather because he 

 thought it was the right thing to do : as indeed it probably 

 was. One old cow was marked with hoops all round her 

 body, like an advertisement of Michelin tyres : only the 

 hoops were but an inch apart from one another, and seemed 

 to be formed by darker and longer bands of hair: probably 

 something to do with the summer moult. Two cows, which 

 scrambled out of the same hole one after the other, were 

 fighting, the hinder one biting the other savagely as she 

 made an ungainly entrance. The first was not in calf, the 

 aggressor, however, was : this may have had something to 

 do with it. They were both much cut about and bleeding. 



A seal is never so pretty as when he is a baby. With his 

 grey woolly coat, which he keeps for a fortnight, his com- 

 paratively long flippers and tail, and his big dark eyes, he 

 looks very clean and pussy-like. I watched one running 

 round and round after his tail, putting his flipper under 

 his head as a pillow, and scratching himself, seemingly as 

 happy as possible: yet it was pretty cold with some wind. 



Little is known of the lighter side of a Weddell's life. 

 It seems probable that their courtship is a ponderous affair. 

 About October 26 Atkinson found an embryo of about 

 a fortnight old, which is an interesting stage, and this was 

 preserved with many others we found, but all of them 

 were too old to be of any real value. I think there is a good 

 deal of variation in the size of the calves at birth. There 

 is certainly much difference between the care of individual 

 mothers, some of which are most concerned when you 

 approach, while others take little notice or lop away from 

 you, leaving their calf to look after itself, or to find another 

 mother. Sometimes they are none too careful not to roll or 

 lie on their calves. 



One afternoon I drove a bull seal towards a cow with a 

 calf. The cow went for him bald-headed, with open mouth, 

 bellowing and most disturbed. The bull defended himself 

 as best he might but absolutely refused to take the offen- 

 sive. The calf imitated his mother as best he could. 



Meanwhile Atkinson and Dimitri took some mule- 

 fodder and dog-biscuit to a point twelve miles south of 



