WEDDELL'S SEAL. 15 
certainly not to anything approaching what might be called a seasonal migration. 
Weddell’s Seal is therefore not a migrant, and that it is less abundant in the winter 
months than in the summer is rather the result of a change in its habits, than of any 
radical change in its local distribution. 
This is an interesting point in the history of Weddell’s Seal, for it marks it 
off as the species which has adapted itself more perfectly to Antarctic conditions 
than any of the other Southern forms, and it has a bearing also on its comparative 
immunity from the attacks of Killer Whales, as will presently be shown. 
The Killer Whales throughout the year remain quite as far South as the periodical 
break up of the sea ice will allow. They are to be seen the last thing in the autumnal 
twilight (March 7th and 9th in 1902) and the first thing in the spring (September 14th 
in 1902) hunting in herds along the edges of the fast ice, as the floes break off and 
drift away. 
If, then, Weddell’s Seal lived actually at the limiting edges of the fast ice, and 
was wholly dependent upon the proximity of open water, it would be no more immune 
from the attacks of the Killer Whale than are the Crab-eater (Lobodon) and Ross’ 
(Ommatophoca) Seals, but it is not so dependent upon open water, for it retires as this 
advances in the summer months, betaking itself to the fast ice which is still unbroken 
in the sheltered bights and bays along the coast-line. 
If, on the other hand, it wanders from the actual shores and sheltered bay ice of 
the coast, it is not to tempt fate in the pack ice, but to take advantage of the 
peculiarities in the formation of the Ice Barriers which ring round the Antarctic 
continent, where, diving deep under the frowning ice-cliffs that confront the open 
water, and coming up a quarter of a mile or more from the actual edge, it reaches the 
Barrier surface where it dips in a valley to the water-level. Nothing could be more 
surprising, after first scaling the ice-cliffs to reach the snowy surface of Ross’ Great 
Ice Barrier, for example, than to find that the surface gradually dips again into a long 
valley filled with seals and seal-holes at the level of the water. 
Weddell’s Seal in this way has gone farther than any other species to outwit 
its enemies and find seclusion without reducing its chances of securing food. In the 
summer, where it basks on the fast ice it is absolutely safe, and where it breeds it is 
even more so. Where it feeds it is sometimes open to attack, but by no means always, 
since it finds food freely in the water beneath the ice on which it basks and breeds. 
In the winter, knowing that open water means danger, it is safe when the sea is frozen, 
and by retiring South as storms break up the sea ice, it is safe while the sea is being 
opened up. 
That its security is not merely theoretical is strongly evidenced by the almost 
total absence of all scars in the skins of the ‘ Discovery’s’ collection. Nor are these 
skins exceptional, for it is a very rare thing indeed to find a Weddell’s Seal with such 
scars and ugly wounds as are to be found commonly on the large majority of 
Crab-eaters’ (Lobodon) skins. I have only on one or two occasions seen scars such 
