142 



The Living Animals of the World 



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l_iEEY SEAL. 



Seals ave not ao well adapted as sea-lions for getting about on the dry land, and, except foi- 

 their habit of coming ashore to bask in the sun, are thoroughly aciuatic. 



are born on ice-floes. It is 

 found in great herds in Davis 

 Straits, on the coasts of Green- 

 land, and in the greater part of 

 the frozen Arctic Ocean. It is 

 the animal whieli 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 

 tliey could be seen in tens of 

 thousands blackening square miles 

 of ice. They are still so numerous 

 that in Danish Greenland more 

 than 30,000 are taken each }-ear. 

 The Kinged Seal is a small 

 variety, not more than 3 or 4 feet 

 in length, found in great numbers 

 in the Far Kortli. Its flesh is 

 the main food of the Eskimo, 

 and its skin the clothing of the Greeiilanders. 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 El.^dder-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 

 sometimes 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 

 liaunts 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 IG 

 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 liunted 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 Stellers 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 tlie Clixdlenijfr it is stated tliat 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 Inhere in huts. Tlieir duty is constantly to drive the sea-elephants from this beach into the 

 sea, whicli they do with whips made out of the hides of the seals themseh'es. The beasts 

 thus ousted swim off, and often 'haul uji,' as the term is, upon the accessible beach beyond. 

 In very stormy weather, wlien tliey are driven into the sea, they are forced to lietal^e theinseh'es 

 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. 

 1'hey 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 liiin in the air. 'Ihe males show fight when 

 whipped, and are witli great difficulty driven into the sea. The females give birth to their 



