BIOLOGY 



The finner with its little fin about half-way along the 

 back, and its long pointed head, came very near, and often 

 grazed the ship. One came vertically up close by the 

 ship's side, the snout ten or twelve feet out of the water. 

 As usual in such emergencies none of the cameras were 

 ready. 



The killers were often in family parties, or a few 

 families together, some bulls of great size, with magnifi- 

 cent triangular fin, like a boat's sail, six or eight feet 

 long, the cows with much smaller, often curved fin, the 

 calves following close by their mothers' tails to avoid 

 getting lost. Some very small calves were seen in 

 January. 



The humpback, with little rounded fin set far back, 

 and the bottle-nose were rarely seen. 



The killer sometimes rested his head on the edge of a 

 floe and looked about with his wicked little eye for a seal 

 or penguin. These he would try to knock off by rising 

 under the floe, and on one occasion a party of three men, 

 who spent an anxious twenty-four hours adrift on a floe, 

 related that the killers were trying this experiment with 

 them. 



Seals 



Of the four Antarctic seals only the Weddell was 

 common at Cape Royds. The crabeater kept to the pack 

 and rarely came on shore. The sea-leopard and the Ross 

 seal were very rare. 



The Weddell seal, or false sea-leopard, is a large and 

 heavy animal. The skin and blubber of one large seal 

 made a full sledge load. When it hes peacefully on the 

 ice it is a shapeless lump. If disturbed, as for instance 

 by putting your foot on it or throwing a dog at it, it 

 shows ludicrous astonishment, curves both ends towards 

 the intruder, open its mouth astonishingly wide, gasps and 



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