126 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 
on ice-floes. It is found in great 
herds in Davis Straits, on the 
coasts of Greenland and in the 
greater part of the frozen Arctic 
Ocean. It is the animal which 
the sealing-vessels which hunt 
seals for oil and “ hair ”’—that is, 
the leather of the skins, not the 
fur—seek and destroy. In the old 
days they could be seen in tens 
of thousands blackening square 
miles of ice. They are still so 
numerous that in Danish Green- 
land more than 30,000 are taken 
each year. The RINGED SEAL is 
a small variety, not more than 3 
Photo by York and Son Notting Hill 
y ‘4 
GRAY SEAL or 4 feet in length, found in great 
Seals are not so well adapted as sea-lions for getting about on the dry land, and, except for’ wymbers in the Far North. Its 
their habit of coming ashore to bask in the sun, are thoroughly aquatic flesh is the main food of the 
Eskimo, and its skin the clothing of the Greenlanders. The seals make breathing-holes in the 
ice. There the Eskimo waits with uplifted spear for hours at a time, until the seal comes up to 
breathe, when it is harpooned. The BLappErR-NosED SEAL is a large spotted variety, with a 
curious bladder-like crest on the head and nose of the male. Unlike all other seals, it some- 
times resists the hunters and attacks the Eskimo in their kayaks. 
If any evidence were needed of the great destruction which the sealing and whaling 
industry causes, and has caused, among the large marine animals, the case of the ELEPHANT-SEALS 
ought to carry conviction. These are very large seals, the male of which has a projecting nose 
like a proboscis. They were formerly found both north and south of the Equator, their main 
haunts being on the coast of California, and on the islands of the South Pacific and Antarctic 
Ocean. They are gigantic compared with the common seals, some of the males being from 16 
to 20 feet long. Cuttle-fish and seaweed are the principal food of this seal, which was formerly 
seen in astonishing numbers. The whaling-ships which hunted both these seals and sperm- 
whales at the same time almost destroyed those which bred on the more accessible coasts, just as 
the earlier whalers entirely destroyed Steller’s sea-cow, and their modern descendants destroyed 
the southern right-whales. The elephant-seal is now very scarce, and when one is killed the 
skin is regarded as something of a curiosity. 
In the records of the voyage of the Challenger it is stated that there were still great 
numbers of the elephant-seals surviving near Heard Island, and not a few round the shores of 
Kerguelen Island. Professor Moseley states that on the windward shore of Heard Island “ there 
is an extensive beach, called Long Beach. This was covered with thousands of sea-elephants in 
the breeding-season ; but it is only accessible by land, and then only by crossing two glaciers. 
No boat can safely land on this shore; consequently men are stationed on the beach, and 
live there in huts. Their duty is constantly to drive the sea-elephants from this beach into the 
sea, which they do with whips made out of the hides of the seals themselves. The beasts thus 
ousted swim off, and often ‘haul up,’ as the term is, upon the accessible beach beyond. In very 
stormy weather, when they are driven into the sea, they are forced to betake themselves to the 
sheltered side of the island. Two or three old males, which are called ‘ beach-masters,’ hold a 
beach for themselves and cover it with cows, but allow no other males to haul up. They fight 
furiously, and one man told me that he had seen an old male take a young one up in his teeth 
and throw him over, lifting him in the air. The males show fight when whipped, and are with 
