386 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



He made no attempt to leave the beach until he had been disturbed 

 several times by my tapping him on the trunk. At first he only 

 opened his mouth to the full extent ; latterly he raised himself on his 

 fore flippers and swung his after-part round, thus turning his head 

 towards the water ; after this, by placing his fore flippers a little for- 

 ward and drawing his body forward, somewhat like a snail, he was 

 making for the water. A rope was then passed over his head, and 

 fastened to a rock to prevent his getting away. On being lanced 

 behind the fore flipper the blood ran freely, but the animal pressed 

 his flipper several times on the wound and stopped the bleeding, until 

 the flipper was forced from his side ; at a low estimate there was three 

 hundred gallons of blood. The length from the tip of the trunk to the 

 end of the hinder flippers was 17 ft. 18 in. ; the skin, when spread, 

 measured 18 ft. by 12 ft. He was in low condition as regards blubber, 

 there only being forty gallons. The hide resembles that of the Land- 

 Elephant in colour, and is covered with deep scars from the head to 

 one-half of his length. The skin and skeleton are still here. I think 

 to give the Smithsonian Institute the first refusal, as Mr. Grierson is 

 sending photographs. I will send one of the skeletons, minus the head, 

 which has not been taken. — (Signed) Jas. Smith." 



This appears to refer to some lantern-slides of a specimen 

 which were exhibited, on behalf of Mr. Rupert Vallentin, at a 

 meeting of the Linnean Society on June 1st last. According to 

 the official report of that meeting, — "The distribution of this huge 

 Seal on various antarctic and subtropical islands having been 

 traced, Mr. Vallentin's notes on a specimen killed in Stanley Har- 

 bour were read. It measured 18 ft. 11 in. from the end of the trunk 

 to a straight line between the two hinder extremities ; the trunk, 

 produced by the inflation of a loose tubular sac of skin above the 

 nostrils, is present only in the male, and measures, when fully 

 extended, 12 in. from the gape. No fresh facts were made'known 

 concerning the nature of the food of this animal : described by 

 some writers as herbivorous, like the Manatee; by others, as 

 feeding on Mollusca and Crustacea, like the Walrus. In this 

 case the stomach was empty, with the exception of a large 

 number of Nematode worms, specimens of which were exhibited." 



In the late Prof. Moseley's " Notes by a Naturalist on the 

 * Challenger ' " will be found considerable information regarding 

 this animal. It has almost entirely deserted the island of Tristan 

 da Cunha. Four specimens were found on landing at Kerguelen's 

 Land, where the species is probably common. On Heard Island 

 there were strewn thousands of skeletons of the " Sea-Elephant." 

 " The bones lay in curved lines, looking like tide lines, on either 



