68 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 
at that date, and what strides were made during the next 
few years. To read what was known of the birds and beasts 
of the Antarctic and then to read Wilson’s Zoological Re- 
port of the Discovery Expedition is an education in what 
one man can still do in an out-of-the-way part of the world 
to elucidate the problems which await him. 
The teeth of a crab-eating seal “are surmounted by 
perhaps the most complicated arrangement of cusps found 
in any living mammal.” ! The mouth is so arranged that 
the teeth of the upper jaw fit into those of the lower, and 
“the cusps form a perfect sieve . . . a hitherto unparalleled 
function for the teeth of a mammal.” The food of this 
seal consists mainly of Euphausiae, animals much like 
shrimps, which it doubtless keeps in its mouth while it 
expels the water through its teeth, like those whales which 
sift their food through their baleen plates. “* This develop- 
ment of cusps in the teeth of the [crab-eating seal] is 
probably a more perfect adaptation to this purpose than in 
any other mammal, and has been produced at the cost of 
all usefulness in the teeth as grinders. The grit, however, 
which forms a fairly constant part of the contents of the 
stomach and intestines, serves, no doubt, to grind up the 
shells of the crustaceans, and in this way the necessity for 
grinders is completely obviated.” ® 
The sea-leopard has a very formidable set of teeth suit- 
able for his carnivorous diet. The Weddell, living on fish, 
has a more simple group, but these are liable to become 
very worn in old age, due to his habit of gnawing out holes 
in the ice for himself, so graphically displayed on Ponting’s 
cinematograph. When he feels death approaching, the 
crab-eating seal, never inclined to live in the company of 
more than a few of his kind, becomes still more solitary. 
The Weddell seal will travel far up the glaciers of South 
Victoria Land, and there we have found them lying dead. 
But the crab-eating seal will wander even farther. He 
leaves the pack. “Thirty miles from the sea-shore and 
3000 feet above sea-level, their carcases were found on 
1 Antarctic Manual: Seals, by Barrett-Hamilton, p. 216. 2 Ibid. p. 217. 
3 Discovery Natural History Report, Zoology, vol. ii. part i., by E. A. Wilson, p. 36. 
