﻿Otago Institute. 4.^7 



it finds it requires more ballast it comes ashore again and repeats the dose. 

 Should it, howevei-, find that it has too much dead weight on board, it has the 

 power of unloading itself, by vomiting one or more stones out upon the beach, 

 till, in fact, after repeated trials, it has trimmed itself to the exact specific 

 gravity necessary for its purpose. Hence these stones are always termed 

 "seals' ballast." The whole story seems so extraordinary as to be altof^ether 

 too much to swallow, still he had heard it so often amongst old whalers and 

 sealers that he thought there must be some slight foundation for it. He 

 might mention that Moeraki Beach was a place much frequented by the Seal, 

 and they are often caught there ; a few days ago, when there^ as many as 

 thi-ee at one time were seen ashore, and one of them, a very large one, was 

 caught and killed.* The diifei-ent museums in New Zealand could easily get 

 supplied with specimens from Moeraki by making proper arrangements with 

 anyone resident there. 



Mr. Peter Thomson said that Mr. Gillies need not be so sceptical about 

 the habits of the Seal, with reference to the seals' ballast, as he (Mi-. Thomson) 

 could of his own knowledge corroborate the accuracy of his statement. He 

 had lived a great deal aboixt old whaling and sealing stations, and had no 



doubt whatever about the facts related, and the stones — the seals' ballast 



could be seen there at any time by any one. He had never seen the animal 

 swallowing or discharging the stones, but he had seen the stones taken out of 

 their inside when being cut up. The only error into which Mr. Gillies had 

 crept, was in supposing that it was when about to take a long journey that 

 the Seal took the ballast on board. The I'eal fact of the case was that at 

 certain seasons the Seal got so fat that it was with difficulty it coidd dive or 

 swim under water. At these times it came ashore exactly in the way des- 

 cribed by Mr. Gillies, and loaded itself with the proper amount of ballast 

 necessary to enable it with facility to pursue its avocations in the briny deep. 

 Whatever was the reason for its taking the ballast on boai'd, he had no doubt 

 Avhatever of the fact, and felt no hesitation whatever in stating so. 



3. The President then read the following notes by Mr. Martin Chapman, 

 " On Sir William Thomson's Hypothesis that the Germ of Life is derived 

 from Meteors " : — 



I enclose a report of a speech made by Sir William Thomson, President of 

 the British Association, at Edinburgh. I send it on account of the theory 

 there propounded of the advent of organic life on our planet. At first sight it 

 struck me as being, to say the least, attractive ; but on further consideration 

 I came to the conclusion that Sir William had not considered the subject 

 very fully. My objections to the theory, or rather hypothesis, are as follows : — 



1. Assuming the meteorites which reach the earth to have been planets or 

 * A Sea Leopard, or a Fur Seal ? — Ed . 



