A GIANT AMONG SEALS 233 
eared seals is shown by their breeding habits, which are 
in many respects similar. On the Crozet Islands, for 
example, where they arrive about the middle of August, 
the old bulls secure a station for themselves. They do 
not, however, pass any long period without taking food, 
neither do they collect ‘“‘harems” for themselves after the 
manner of the sea-bears and sea-lions ; the females selecting 
a station for themselves some distance away. Soon after 
landing the females give birth to their young, which are at 
first black, and, although there is some discrepancy between 
different accounts, it seems probable that both sexes remain 
with their offspring till the latter are ready to enter the 
sea, which they usually do when about six or seven weeks 
old. When they have once taken to a maritime life, the 
young sea-elephants are said to grow at a prodigious rate ; 
and, indeed, unless they take many years to attain full 
maturity, this must necessarily be the case. 
As just indicated, the few accounts that have been given 
of the breeding habits of these seals by no means accord 
with one another, and this is the more to be regretted 
since, owing to the comparative scarcity of the species at 
the present day, it is very unlikely that an authentic 
history will ever be given to the world. 
The extermination of this giant seal, so far as it has as 
yet gone, is a sad story, accompanied as it is by details of 
revolting and fiendish cruelty. In the eighteenth and the 
early part of the nineteenth century these seals were met 
with in thousands on most of their island haunts as well 
as on the shores of Patagonia, but the ease with which 
they could be killed, and the value of their hides and oil, 
soon led to a vast reduction in their numbers; and in 
many of their old breeding-places, such as the Falklands, 
they are either very scarce or are altogether exterminated. 
