SEA-ELEPHANTS ON KERGUELEN'S LAND. 443 



To the great bulk there was a mouth, with a breadth, at the 

 angle, of 9 in. only, and a tongue (which we found later to be 

 excellent eating) quite filled it. Dr. Stirling has this specimen 

 mounted in the South Australian Museum. While the blubber 

 ranges from 2 to 6 in. in depth, it varies in weight. Six men were 

 employed in changing the position of one fatty skin while on the 

 skinning-board. This is a fair example of a male, which is 

 always larger than the female. The congregation in harbours 

 was generally systematic. The bulls occupied one part of the 

 beach, and the cows formed a colony in another. There were 

 always several colonies in a harbour, and they seldom appeared 

 to intermingle, The young were not numerous. They had 

 probably set out on their southerly migration before our arrival 

 on Dec. 27th, or were scattered promiscuously along the beaches. 



It is the general impression that these mammals lie in their 

 rookeries for days or weeks together, and do not feed otherwise than 

 on their fatty tissue. With this view I do not altogether agree, 

 for most of the Seals are daily to be seen in the water, either 

 coming in with the full flood, or going out with the early part of an 

 ebb tide. That a young Sea-Elephant, 6 ft. in length, can live a 

 month on its own fat was proved by one we brought to Melbourne, 

 and which was lodged in the aquarium, but died a few months later. 



One day as many as eighty may be counted ; the next day the 

 same beach may only contain ten, with other heads poking above 

 the floating-weed, and showing glassy round black eyes quite 

 wide awake. Our men have often shot as many as sixty at one 

 time, and found next day another twenty had come up among the 

 dead, simply because it was their chosen lair. This species dis- 

 likes expending energy on land, and they will lie in a group of 

 twenty to sixty in some grassy spot with a sandy landing. Some 

 few will ascend to an inclined distance of one hundred and fifty 

 yards, and there they are not so active as those below, and 

 probably do not go out daily. The energy would be too much 

 for them, as they are slow crawlers, using only two flippers, and 

 the snake-like action of vertebrae and muscles. 



The first anchorage of the brig was at Royal Sound, and 

 before we removed from a beach of four miles in extent we had 

 collected 426 skins. Our two anchors were lifted for a second 

 harbour on Jan. 17th (Greenland Harbour). 



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