THE FDE SEAL: SIZE, AND GENERAL HISTOEY. 51 



tioDS as beiug as regular as those of the ^'arious kinds of sea-fowl, aud they are recorded as arriving 

 with great regularity at the Pribylov Islands, but where, they pass the season of winter is still a 

 matter of conjecture. 



Size. — Mr. Elliott has given a table showing the weight, size, and rate of growth of the Fur 

 Seal, from the age of one week to six years, based on actual weight aud measurement, with an 

 estimate of the size and weight of specimens from eight to twenty years of age. From this table 

 it appears that the pups when a week old have a length of from twelve to fourteen inches, and a 

 weight of six to seveu and a half pounds. At six months old the length is two feet and the weight 

 about thirty pounds. At one year the average length of six examples was found to be thirty-eight 

 inches, and the weight thirty-nine pounds, the males and females at this time being alike in size 

 The average weight of thirty males at the age of two years is given as fifty-eight pounds, and the 

 length as forty-five inches. Thirty-two males at the age of three yeai's were found to give an 

 average weight of eighty-seven pounds, and an average length of fifty-two inches. Ten males at 

 the age of four averaged one hundred and thirty-five pounds in weight, and fifty-eight inches in 

 length. A mean of five examples five years old is : weight, two hundred pounds; length, sixty-five 

 inches. Three males at six years gave a weight of two hundied and eighty pounds, and a length 

 of six feet. The estimated average weight of males from eight years and upward, when fat, is 

 given as four hundred to five hundred pounds, and the average length as six feet three inches 

 to six feet eight inches. Mr. Elliott further adds that the average weight of the female is from 

 eighty to eighty-five pounds, but that they range in weight from seventy-five to one hundred and 

 twenty pounds, and that the five and six year old males, on their first appearance in May and 

 June, when fat and fresh, may weigh a third more than in July, or at the time those mentioiied in 

 the table were weighed, which would thus indicate an average maximum weight of about three 

 hundred and seventy-five pounds for the six-year-old males. According, however, to my own 

 measurements of old males, from mounted and unmounted specimens, the length is between seven 

 and eight feet, and of a full-grown female about four feet. Captain Bryant states that the males 

 attain mature size at about the sixth year, when their total length is from seven to eight feet, their 

 girth six to seven feet, and their weight, when in full flesh, from five to seven hundred pounds. 

 The females, he says, are full grown at four years old, when they measure four feet in length, two 

 and a half in girth, and weigh eighty to one hundred pounds. The yearlings, lie says, weigh from 

 thirty to forty pounds. The relative size of the adults of both sexes and the young is well shown 

 in the accompanying illustration drawn by Mr. Elliott. 



General history. — The northern Fur Seal was first made known to science by Steller, in 

 1751, under the name of Ursus marinus. During his visit to Kamtchatka and its neighboring 

 islands, in 1742, he met with these animals in great numbers at Bering's Island, where he spent 

 some time among them, and carefully studied their habits and anatomy, a detailed account of 

 which appeared in his celebrated memoir entitled "De Bestiis Marinis," in the Transactions of the 

 Saint Petersburg Academy for the year 1749.' This important essay was the source of nearly all of 

 the accounts of this animal that appeared prior to the beginning of the present decade. The 

 twenty-eight quarto pages of Steller's memoir devoted to this species gave not only a detailed 

 account of its anatomy, with an extensive table of measurements, but also of its remarkable habits, 

 and figures of the animals themselves. A little later Krascheninikow, in his History of Kamt- 

 chatka,^ under the name of " Sea Cat," gave also a long account of its habits, apparently based 



'Nov. Coram. Acad. Petrop., ii, pp. 331-359, pi. xv, 1751. This, as is well known, is a postliumous paper, pub- 

 lished six years after Steller's death, Steller dying of fever Nd vcmber 12, Vio, while on his way from Siberia to Saint 

 Petersbu.g. Tbc description of the Sea Bear was written at Bering's Island iu May, 1742. 



"Hist. Kamtchatka (English edition), translated from the Russian by James Grieve, pp. 123-130, 1764. 



