3 oS THE ANIMALS OF THE ANTARCTIC 



season had just commenced. Three of the largest males were killed for museums, 

 and likewise an adult female, the former averaging 16 feet in length by 11 feet in 

 girth, while the latter was close on 11 feet in length. Males of 22 feet in length 

 have, however, been previously recorded. The 'pups,' which appeared to be 

 about a week old, were dusky black in colour, and quite different from the 

 yearlings, which were greyish brown. The old males frequently engaged in 

 fighting among themselves, although such combats were far less serious than those 

 which take place between male sea-bears, there being apparently no actual seizure 

 by one combatant of the skin of the neck of the other, and the head being quickly 

 withdrawn and raised aloft after the infliction of every blow. The nursing 

 females were in most cases accompanied by a yearling as well as by a newly born 

 pup. Some of these yearlings were captured without difficulty by throwing over 

 them pieces of heavy netting in which they were tightly rolled. When the 

 Albatross left Guadalupe Island on 4th March there were not less than one 

 hundred and twenty-five sea-elephants on that part of the island, but as it is 

 practically certain that the tale of females was then incomplete, the total number 

 of the herd may be roughly estimated at one hundred and fifty head. In addition 

 to recording the black colour of the newly born young, the naturalist to the 

 expedition claims to have discovered that the trunk of the old males is incapable 

 of being inflated, and that it is retracted into heavy folds on the top of the head 

 by muscular action. The breeding-season commences about the end of February, 

 and the period of gestation is twelve months. It has also been noticed that the 

 yearlings emit a cry or scream unlike the voice of any other seal ; and that in 

 captivity the favourite food of young sea-elephants is fish. 



It may be well to add that in addition to visiting Guadalupe Island, which is 

 situated about one hundred and fifty miles off the coast of the peninsula of Lower 

 California, the Juan Fernandez sea-elephants (M. leoninus, but often miscalled 

 M. angustirostris) resorted in former days to the shores of the mainland, where 

 they ranged from Cape Lazaro to Point Reyes. In 1890 the species, which seems 

 to have completely deserted its original home on Juan Fernandez, was believed 

 by American naturalists to be practically extinct, as the existence of the Guadalupe 

 herd was at that time unknown. 



In the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and the South Shetlands, elephant-seals 

 are being relentlessly slaughtered at the present day for the sake of their oil ; and 

 unless steps are taken by the British Government to regulate the slaughter, it is 

 only too likely that these seals will share the fate that has already befallen their 

 relatives in other parts of the southern ocean. 



Wbaies and One of the results of the numerous recent expeditions to the 



Doipnins. Antarctic is to render it practically certain that the ocean surround- 

 ing the southern pole does not possess a giant whale of its own comparable to the 

 Greenland whale of the Arctic. 



In the accounts of earlier Antarctic exploration, reference is made to a black 

 whale frequenting the neighbourhood of the ice-cliffs, specially characterised by 

 its high back-fin ; the writers distinguishing it from the grampus or killer, which 

 is a pied species. Nothing more appears to have heen heard of this Antarctic 

 ice-whale till the naturalist to the Discovery expedition announced that three of 



