THE CRAB-EATING SEAL. 35 
as big as shot of all sizes. What has brought this old seal on shore? To judge by 
his tracks he has stayed there several days. He was presumably ill, as he was very 
lean, with only about half an inch of fat. Perhaps this is a solution of the question as 
to where all the dead seals come from which I have found scattered about on the 
point here and in the guano; perhaps this is a burial-place for old seals, and they 
crawl on land here to die. If this is so, my first supposition that all the seal 
mummies are due to its being a breeding-place for the White Seal is thereby knocked 
on the head; but this does not decrease the interest of my last conjecture.” 
On October 14th, 1899, Hanson died, his great wish—the investigation of the 
breeding habits of the White Seal—remaining unfulfilled. We know but little more 
of their breeding habits now than he knew then, but we do know, that where 
he was stationed at Cape Adare, there was no possibility of discovering more, and 
indeed the only light that has been thrown upon the matter has come from the 
pack ice farther north. 
Dr. Racovitza, of the ‘Belgica,’ procured and photographed a young Lobodon 
immediately after its birth. This animal he has thus described :—‘‘ Le jeune unique 
est couvert d’une épaisse fourrure, de la méme couleur que celle des parents, mais 
beaucoup plus fournie. Le bébé, au moment de sa naissance, a une taille considérable ; 
1°15 métre (= 3 feet 9 inches); il posstde déja des dents et des yeux parfaitement 
fonctionnels et méme une couche de graisse sous-cutanée efficace pour le protéger 
du froid. Il peut done immédiatement se tirer daffaire tout seul; aussi la mére 
Yabandonne-t-elle apres l’avoir allaité seulement deux ou trois jours.” 
By no other expedition has so young an example of this seal been brought home. 
In the ‘Discovery’ we had no better fortune than the other expeditions which were 
in the Antarctic with us. We can only say therefore that the Crab-eater breeds 
neither along the coasts or coastal ice nor on the Barrier ice of the Antarctic land 
masses, conjecturing with almost certainty that it breeds always in the pack ice of 
the more open seas. The appearance of the young at birth in September we know. 
from the above description and from a photograph reproduced in Dr. Racovitza’s 
paper. But, in its early independence and in the very speedy desertion of its mother 
this seal differs from Weddell’s Seal, which not only tends but suckles its young for 
at least five weeks and often more after birth, and quite constantly for a week or 
two after the infant has shed its natal woolly coat and entered water. 
The adult Crab-eater differs markedly in build from the heavy, phlegmatic 
unwieldy Weddell’s Seal, for although in length it ranges up to 9 feet from the tip of 
the nose to the end of the tail flippers, it has never the bulk that characterises the 
Weddell’s Seal. It is long and slim, tailing off gently from the shoulders backwards 
(figs. 23 and 24, p. 32). The neck is long, and merges also gently with the head, 
which has an elongated appearance from the lengthening of the snout. The snout 
is distinctly pig-like, and can be given a turned-up, truncated look when the animal 
is in fear or otherwise excited, and the nostrils are dilated. 
