WEDDELL’S SEAL. 1 
No. 82, 9, skull, with worn canines and incisors. McMurdo Sound. 
No. 84, 6, very young skull. McMurdo Sound. 
No. 85, 9, skull. McMurdo Sound. 
No. 86, 9, juv.skin and skull. Moulting woolly coat, three weeks old. (Mounied for B.M. 
Gallery by Rowland Ward.) Dec. 23, 1903. McMurdo Sound. 
COLLECTION OF EMBRYOS. 
Twelve embryos from the earliest stages were preserved in spirit by Mr. T. V. Hodgson. 
Two foetal seals at full term were also preserved in spirit. 
This collection has been submitted to Dr. Marrett Tims, of Cambridge, for examination, and will be 
separately reported. 
MATERIAL IN THE ‘ Mornine’s’ COLLECTION. 
No. 16,M.4. ¢,ad.skin. South Victoria Land. 
No. 23, M. 47. 6, ad. skin and skull. Moulting. South Victoria Land. 
No. 24, M. 48. 9, vix ad. skin and skull. Feb. 1903. McMurdo Sound. 
No. 25, M. 44. @, vix ad. skin and skull. McMurdo Sound. 
Here and there, scattered far and wide during the summer months in McMurdo Sound, 
we saw parties of Weddell’s Seals lying on the floe. Sometimes one or two only, some- 
times ten, twenty, thirty, forty or more lying together, not huddled close to one 
another, but in scattered parties. The whole frozen strait, from the open water at the 
mouth to the blind end where the ice of a season or two meets the barrier ice of an 
unknown number of seasons, the whole of this vast ice sheet is, in fact, one big 
scattered rookery of Weddell’s Seals (see fig. 10, p. 14). 
On approaching one of the largest collections lying on the floe, it could be seen that, 
though almost all were sleeping, there was a good deal of lazy restlessness in their 
slumber. They were not by any means motionless. One or two would be up and 
moving, loping along in one direction or another for no very apparent reason. Another 
would be seen coming out of its hole in the ice, clumsily hitching its shapeless bulk 
up by degrees, wet and shiny, till at last it emerged on to the floe, where it 
immediately began a rough dry by rolling over and over on the snowy surface. Then 
it would lope along a little further and settle off to sleep. 
We might then walk up to one of the sleepers, and if we approached him up 
wind no notice would be taken. The eyes are fast closed, and the head is drawn in, 
wrinkling up the blubber-lined skin in folds around the neck. The breathing goes on 
as before, a sudden half opening of the nostrils (sometimes in sleep only one is used), a 
snorting expiration followed at once by a wide opening of the nostrils and a rather less 
prolonged and noisy inspiration, then the nostrils snap to and remain closed while one 
can slowly count to twelve or fifteen seconds. No notice whatever is taken of our 
presence, though we may be only a foot or two from the sleeping Weddell’s nose. His 
eyes remain tight shut, and now he stretches himself and contracts his hind flippers into 
the most grotesque attitudes ; his back itches, and his hand goes round in the most 
human fashion to scratch it with the long protruding nail of the second finger. Now 
his hand itches, and with the other he scratches that. Then he yawns, and gurgles 
in his throat, still always with his eyes tight shut, and he may settle off to sleep 
